Source : the age
Jerusalem: Iran launched missiles at Israel in the first such bombardment since a fragile ceasefire took effect in early April, raising the possibility of a return to heavy fighting and complicating mediation efforts to end the war.
Iran’s state broadcaster confirmed the launches, and Iran closed its western airspace to brace for a possible response. Tehran had warned of retaliation after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs without warning earlier on Sunday in defiance of Washington’s request days ago to stand down. Israel said the Iranian-backed Hezbollah fired at northern Israel earlier in the day.
“Should these acts of aggression be repeated, the responses will be broader in scope and will encompass all American and Zionist targets throughout the region,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said in a statement that also referenced attacks on Iran’s coast and vessels around the Strait of Hormuz.
Sirens sounded in several areas of Israel, sending millions running for shelter. Israel’s military said it intercepted the missiles, and multiple explosions were heard in the north. Less than an hour later, the military said people could leave areas reinforced against missile attacks.
“Iran has made a grave mistake,” Israel military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said. The military’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, said it would “strike the enemy with determination as soon as the order is given”.
But Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, said US President Donald Trump told it that he doesn’t think Israel needs to respond further.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone after the Iranian attack, Reuters reported citing Israeli media.
Earlier, US news outlet Axios reported that Trump said he would call Netanyahu and press him not to retaliate for Iran’s missile attack.
“I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate. Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” Trump told Axios, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
“The Iranian strikes didn’t hurt anybody. Hopefully, Israel is not going to retaliate. If Bibi strikes them back, it’s just gonna keep going like the last 47 years – or the last 3000 years.
“We are very close to a final deal with Iran. It is going to be a good deal. I don’t want it to blow up because of what is happening now.”
Trump told a Fox News Channel reporter that he wanted the Iranians to stop firing missiles and return to the negotiating table. He also said that Israel’s strikes earlier Sunday were not coordinated with the US and “I’m not happy about it”.
Iran had warned that an attack on Beirut would renew full-scale war across the Middle East, even as Pakistan tries to restart talks between Tehran and Washington. Iran wants a deal to include ending the war in Lebanon.
“US forces across the Middle East remain vigilant and ready,” US Central Command posted on X shortly before the missile launches.
Israel’s attack on Beirut came a few days after the Lebanese and Israeli governments agreed to a ceasefire in US-hosted talks, though Hezbollah rejected the deal. The strike on a residential building killed two people and wounded 20, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
“The army will continue to act in all of Lebanon,” the Israel military spokesperson said.
Associated Press journalists also heard loud explosions in the sky over Damascus. State media in Syria attributed the booms to Israeli air defences. Syria has temporarily closed its southern airspace for 12 hours and suspended operations at Damascus airport.
Iraq also temporarily closed its airspace and suspended air navigation for reasons related to air traffic safety after the launch of Iranian rockets, civil aviation officials told Reuters on Sunday. The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority said Iraqi airspace would remain closed for 72 hours.
Israel’s strikes and ground invasion in Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah, and the militant group’s resistance to disarming, have complicated an overall deal to end the war in the Middle East. Iran says any deal must include an end to fighting in Lebanon.
Last week, Israel had announced it would strike the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, but urgent talks via Washington halted that on the condition that Hezbollah stop targeting Israeli border towns.
On Sunday night, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing at Israel earlier in the day.
Hezbollah wants direct talks between Lebanon and Israel to end, instead supporting Iran’s stance that an overall ceasefire deal between Tehran and Washington include the situation in Lebanon.
Mediation efforts on that larger deal continued on Sunday as Pakistan’s interior minister visited Iran to talk to officials and Egypt said its foreign minister and his Qatari counterpart discussed “proposed elements” of a potential agreement, with no details.
Trump, in an interview taped on Friday and aired on Sunday with NBC’s Meet the Press, said: “I’d like to see Lebanon have a better life. I’d like to see a more surgical attack on Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical.”
Trump added that he was “not demanding” that Lebanon be part of the short-term deal to extend the ceasefire in the Iran war.
More than 3500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war began on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, two days after Israel and the US began attacking Iran. More than 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced. The fighting has killed at least 31 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.
Meanwhile, Iran continued to assert its grip on the Strait of Hormuz and the US continued its blockade of Iranian ports, with shipments of oil, natural gas and fertiliser affected and the global economy in pain.
Netanyahu, who faces elections this year, wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until he believes Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.
Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday. Mohsin Naqvi was delivering a message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei from Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency. There were no details on the message’s contents.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was named the Islamic Republic’s ruler after his father was killed on February 28, the first day of the war.
AP, Reuters
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