Teheran refuses to recognize Israel, and for a very long time, these two countries were persuaded of a shadow war by Israel’s operation inside Iran, and Iranian support for anti-Israel groups, which included Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
But the Shadow War entered a new phase. However, the recent wave of tensions over the past few weeks has temporarily calmed for now, conveying like never before the risk of open conflict between the opposition, analysts say.
The ongoing escalation comes against the Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip.
When Israel blamed for the airstrike on April 1 against Iran in Damascus killing seven Iranian authorities. Then Iran retaliated against Israel with hundreds of drones and missiles, but most of them were shot down by Israel and its allies and that was Iran’s first-ever attack on Israel.
In fear of a significant Israeli payback to that attack, which might provoke another Iranian response, due to pressure from the United States, Israel did not choose any other options.
The New York Times
According to them, which referred to Israeli and Iranian sources, their target was the radar system of a Russian-supplied S-300 missile defence system at an airbase in the central province of Isfahan, the region that hosts the Natanz uranium enrichment plant.
The origin of the strike is not entirely clear, but it included at least one missile fired from a warplane outside Iran and small attack drones known as quadcopters that could have been launched from inside Iran and were aimed at confusing air defences, the report says.
Israel’s policy has not confirmed or denied completing the strike on Iran’s April 1 attack in Syria.
Arash Azizi, Senior lecturer at Clemson University in the United States, says:
“ The purpose of the operation was precisely to remind Iran what Israel could be capable of.”
He told AFP,“ The choice of the airbase near Isfahan was significant because this is the main source of air defence support for all the nuclear installations in the province.”
Israel has for quite some time accepted sabotage operations inside Iran through its Mossed espionage agency.
