After A Day Of Rocket Exchange, Iran And Israel Keep Cards Close To Their Chest

According to the sources, the attacks on March 30 and 31 hit intelligence centers operated by Iran and Lebanese militant outfit Hezbollah in cooperation with the Syrian government forces in the al-Mazzah municipal district in the capital Damascus and the attack on April 4 targeted Al-Qusayr airport near the Lebanese border.

Vowing revenge, the Islamic Republic has admitted that two IRGC “military advisors” -- namely Meqdad Meqdani (Meghdad Meghdani) and Milad Haydari – were killed in the late March attacks. According to the sources, the attacks seemed to be Israel's response to a foiled terrorist attack a week ago in the Megiddo area inside Israel by a person who, according to Israel, was sent by Lebanon's Hezbollah.

The sources added that both Meqdani and Haydari were IRGC intelligence officers in Syria, noting that a group of senior members of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, including former head of the body Hossein Taeb, visited the bereaved families of the two “martyrs” in the past few days.

Iran usually does not report the extent of its casualties in Syria and some observers say that acknowledging the deaths of two IRGC personnel can mean that Tehran wanted to lay the ground for retaliation. Iran International sources are of the opinion that the IRGC forces are planning an imminent attack inside Israel with the help of Hezbollah forces.

On Thursday, dozens of rockets were fired into Israeli territory from Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon, where several displacement camps hosting Palestinian refugees and armed factions are located.

According to Israeli-based news channel i24NEWS, Hezbollah has told Lebanese media that Palestinian groups were behind the rocket attacks.

Three security sources also told Reuters that Palestinian factions based in Lebanon were behind the rocket attacks on Thursday afternoon across the disputed border into Israel.

The Israeli military is still assessing the situation following Thursday's rocket strikes from Lebanon but is working on the assumption that Palestinian factions were behind the attacks, a defense official said. The Israeli military said 34 rockets were launched from Lebanon on Thursday, of which 25 were intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system.

In response to the volley of rockets fired from Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to hit back hard, saying "As for the aggression aimed at us from other fronts - we will hit our enemies and they will pay a price for every act of aggression." Hours after his threat, powerful Israeli airstrikes rocked Gaza strip after midnight on Friday.

Iran has considerable drone capabilities that it has used against US bases in Syria as recently as last month, killing a US contractor and injuring at least eight US servicemen.

Tensions rose in Syria when on March 23 Iranian backed forces attacked a US base with a drone, inflicting casualties. The US responded with an air strike, which was followed by more attacks on US forces. The tit-for-tat strikes stopped after two days, but Iran has targeted US forces in Iraq and Syria 80 times since early 2021 when the Biden administration assumed office.

Israel has been regularly attacking targets in Syria since 2017 to weaken Iran's attempts to strengthen its military presence in the war-torn country and build up a threat on Israel's northern borders.

According to the Interior Ministry, State Security Service and Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan, the group is charged with trying to overthrow the government.

They claim the members of the group were recruited by Iranian special services. According to local media, the detainees, calling themselves “believers”, carried out pro-regime propaganda and religious radicalism through social networks.

The latest news reflects growing tensions between Baku and Tehran. Earlier in the week, Baku announced it had arrested four people in connection with the attempted assassination of a lawmaker who was shot and wounded last week.

Fazil Mustafa, a lawmaker who had been strongly critical of Azerbaijan's neighbor Iran, has been recovering in hospital after what the state security service described as a terror attack.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, which has a large population of ethnic Azeris in its northwest, have been strained in recent months after Baku announced plans to open an embassy in Israel. Though Israel has had an embassy in Baku since the 1990s, it was a show of deepening ties for Baku to open an embassy in the Jewish state.

Iranian officials have accused Azerbaijan of allowing Israel to set up intelligence and military bases on its territory as an operational base against Iran, a claim Baku denies.

Meanwhile, in January, Azerbaijan closed its embassy in Tehran after what it called a "terrorist attack" that killed the embassy's head of security.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said so far, 34 rockets had been fired into Israel, 25 of which intercepted, with five landing in Israeli territory.

Though Hezbollah has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, the onslaught follows growing tensions with Iran.

An IDF spokesperson told reporters in late afternoon, that Israeli leaders will look into Hezbollah's involvement, although at this point the attacks appear to have been launched by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The spokesperson also said that Israel is "checking Iranian involvement."

He said: "Hezbollah probably knew about the attack as it was in south Lebanon, and Lebanon has a responsibility. We are looking into Iranian involvement."

The statement probably point to Israeli reluctance to blame Hezbollah outright, since that would mean pressure to retaliate against the well-armed, Iran-backed group and a wider war on two fronts for Israel.

In 2023, Israel has launched at least ten attacks on Iranian facilities and infrastructure in Iran, including killing major figures in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Council.

Israel's Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, warned the perpetrators "not to test Israel" as the rockets rained down on Thursday, warning of a harsh response.

Iran's Press TV, the voice of the regime, tried to distance its largest proxy from the rocket exchange, attributing it to "Palestinian factions, not Hezbollah", stating it was "retaliatory attacks from Lebanon on Israel following the Israeli regime's forces' aggression on al-Aqsa Mosque".

Tensions in Israel have mounted over the last two days as Hamas members barricaded themselves into the holy Al Aqsa mosque, leading to violent confrontations with Israel Police.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Beirut meeting with counterparts at Hezbollah just hours before the strikes were launched from Hezbollah controlled territory, suggesting a coordinated effort by the militia groups which deem Israel at its weakest point in years.

Israel has been bitterly divided by internal political debate over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s proposed reforms, which have seen three months of mass protest. In echoes of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the barrage also came at the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover, when most of the country is at home with families.

Netanyahu has called a meeting of his top security advisors for an emergency session to take place Thursday evening, as the situation escalates across the border with Gaza, under Hamas control, Lebanon and at the Al Aqsa mosque.

The UN’s peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, had been told to take cover in shelters as the two sides traded blows while residents in northern Israel are currently in shelters.

Story developing

Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported that a meeting of the two delegations took place and they issued a joint statement “on expanding relations and cooperation.”

Tasnim news agency affiliated with the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard reported that Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud discussed practical measures related to the re-opening of their embassies and consulates. They also exchanged views, Tasnim said, on “certain issues related to their bilateral relations,” without providing details.

Reuters reported that the two countries agreed to resume flights and bilateral visits of official and private sector delegations, in addition to facilitating visas for citizens, the statement said.

After years of hostility that fueled conflicts across the Middle East, Tehran and Riyadh agreed to end their diplomatic rift and re-open embassies in a major deal facilitated by China last month.

In brief footage broadcast on Iranian state TV on Thursday, bin Farhan and Amir-Abdollahian, greet each other before sitting down side by side.

In March, China's President Xi Jinping helped broker a surprise deal between regional rivals Tehran and Riyadh to end a seven-year rift and restore diplomatic ties - a display of China's growing influence in the region.

In March, Xi spoke by phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud about several issues.

Beijing's role in the breakthrough between Tehran and Riyadh shook up dynamics in the Middle East, where the United States was for decades the main mediator.

Iran’s regime that is shunned by the West and isolated politically and under US sanctions has heralded the revival of ties with Riyadh as a significant victory and a defeat for the United States in the region.

Critics in the US have blamed the Biden Administration for pushing Saudi Arabia toward China and restoring relations with Iran, by pursuing the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and losing the trust of Saudi leaders as the great power in the region.

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in 2016 after its embassy in Tehran was stormed by mob of hardliners supporters of the regime during a dispute between the two countries over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.

The kingdom then asked Iranian diplomats to leave within 48 hours while it evacuated its embassy staff from Tehran.

The relationship began worsening a year earlier, after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in the Yemen war, where the Iran-aligned Houthi movement ousted a Saudi-backed government and took over the capital, Sanaa.

For Saudi Arabia, the deal could mean improved security. The kingdom has blamed Iran for arming the Houthis, who carried out missile and drone attacks on its cities and oil facilities.

In 2019, Riyadh blamed a massive attack on Aramco oil facilities, which knocked out half of its oil output, directly on the Islamic Republic. Tehran denied those allegations.

With reporting by Reuters

Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Wednesday that the Amir al-Momenin complex was “the target of a failed attack” by a small drone.

The IRGC-affiliated website confirmed the incident and claimed it did not cause any damage. However, there have been no eyewitness accounts or reports among local citizens corroborating the news.

Countering the IRGC, the security deputy of Esfahan governorate, Mohammad-Reza Jan-Nesari, denied any attack on the complex in the area subject of a series of explosions at an Iranian government weapons factory in January. At the time, Iran claimed the explosions were unsuccessful and perpetrated by "mercenaries of the Zionist regime”.

It is also believed that Israel recently carried out the drone attack on the Iranian military center for research and development.

Tehran has repeatedly blamed its arch-foe Israel for such attacks though Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

The incident comes days after Israeli air strikes in Syria hit Iran-linked targets that killed at least two Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) members that served as military advisers in Syria.

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of intelligence officials that Iran remained the nation’s “supreme mission”.

”In every generation there are those who rise up to destroy us and in this generation Iran has risen up to destroy us,” he said.