U.S. calls for de-escalation as Iran claims ‘right to self-defense’ after Israeli strikes

For about 3 hours and 30 minutes early Saturday local time, Israel engaged in three waves of air strikes on military targets in Iran for what the Israel Defense Forces said was “months of continuous attacks” from Iran and its regional allies. 

The strikes came weeks after Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel in retaliation for its assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. 

Saturday’s strikes, which Iran said killed four soldiers, hit military centers in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam, according to Iran’s National Air Defense Headquarters. The IDF said its “mission was fulfilled.”

There have been no reports of Iranian nuclear facilities or oil fields being hit, targets that the U.S. had previously urged Israel to refrain from striking.

Iran downplayed the mission as mostly a miss. The National Air Defense Headquarters, in a statement shared by a state broadcaster, concluded the mission was “successfully intercepted” and resulted in only “limited damage.”

After the strikes, a senior Biden administration official said, “This should be the end of the direct military exchange between Israel and Iran.”

While the U.S. was made aware of the strikes ahead of time, it was not involved in the action, U.S. defense officials say.

Iran’s potential response to what Matthew Savill, military sciences director at the Royal United Services Institute, called the largest direct attack on Iran’s territory since the 1980s, remained unknown.

After the assault, Iran’s foreign ministry said Iran “asserts its entitlement and obligation to defend against external aggression,” but that it was committed to upholding its “responsibilities for regional peace and stability.” Iran previously stated it does not want a wider regional war.

The Biden administration has been working to limit the scope of Israel’s hostilities with regional powers, including opposing militant groups, proxies of Iran such as Lebanon-based Hezbollah, and Iran itself, with its estimated 600,000 troops and an arsenal of ballistic missiles, in hopes of thwarting a larger regional war.

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