Iranian senior official says country has no plan to respond to Israeli strike immediately: report
Fox News
An Iranian senior official has revealed that Tehran has no plan to hit back immediately against Israel after the Jewish state carried out limited strikes inside the country early Friday, a report says.
The strikes in Iran’s Isfahan province — which is where Natanz, one of Iran’s nuclear facilities, is located — come in retaliation for Iran firing a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel last Saturday.
The senior official told Reuters that Iran has no immediate plans to fire back at Israel and that “the foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed.”
“We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack,” he also claimed.
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Iran went after Israel last weekend in response to a suspected Israeli airstrike on April 1 targeting the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, that left a dozen dead, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.
A well-placed military source told Fox News that Friday’s strike by Israel was “limited.” Sources familiar said the U.S. was not involved and there was pre-notification to the U.S. from the Israelis.
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Iranian state media reported that three drones had been shot down over Isfahan by air defense systems, according to Reuters.
Iranian state television later described all sites in the Natanz area as “fully safe” and the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed on X Friday morning that there is no damage to the nuclear facilities.
“Director General Rafael Grossi continues to call for extreme restraint from everybody and reiterates that nuclear facilities should never be a target in military conflicts,” the IAEA added. “IAEA is monitoring the situation very closely.”
Details surrounding the intended target of the strike were not immediately available, but Fox News was able to confirm the target was “not nuclear or civilian.”
As of early Friday morning, Pentagon officials have not confirmed the strike and the White House and the National Security Council have declined to comment on the unfolding situation.
Fox News’ Bradford Betz, Jennifer Griffin and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.