Here from a parade in Tehran on Wednesday. Photo: Vahid Salemi / AP / NTB
Of NTB | 20.04.2024 05:52:30
War and conflicts: – If Israel wants to embark on a new adventure and act against Iran’s interests, then our next response will be immediate and at the highest level, says Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian through an interpreter in an interview with NBC News.
The statements came after reports of an Israeli attack against Iran on the night of Friday.
Before Amir-Abdollahian’s remarks, a senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency on Friday that Iran has no immediate plans to retaliate against Israel.
– We have not been hit by an attack from outside, the discussions are more in the direction of infiltration than attack, said the official, who does not want to be named.
An Iranian analyst told a TV channel in the country on Friday that “mini drones” have been shot down near the city of Isfahan. These were operated by infiltrators inside Iran, the analyst claimed. The attack appears to have been aimed at an Iranian air base near Isfahan.
The authorities in Israel have so far not confirmed that they have carried out any attack, but the right-wing Israeli security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir received sharp criticism on Friday for having more than implied that Israel was behind it.
Last weekend, Iran attacked Israel with over 300 drones and rockets. An Israeli response to the attack has been expected.
In the NBC News interview, Amir-Abdollahian says that Tehran is still investigating the attack that hit Isfahan on Friday night, and adds that so far no links to Israel have been seen.
– They were more like toys that our children play with, not drones, says Amir-Abdollahian in the interview.
– We have not proven any connections between these drones and Israel, says the foreign minister, and adds that messages that suggest otherwise in the media are not true, according to the information Tehran is sitting on.
The government of Iran has not confirmed that the country has been attacked by Israel.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs plays down the significance of the attack. He says that it involved drones that flew for a few hundred meters before being shot down by Iranian air defenses.
(© NTB)