On Friday, the Iranian Foreign Minister refused to acknowledge that Israel was behind the recent attack on his country and described the weapons used as similar to children's toys.
“What happened last night was not a strike,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said in an interview with Tom Llams on NBC News. “They were more like the toys our kids play with — not drones.”
Amir Abdollahian, who spoke to NBC News in New York where he was attending a UN Security Council session, said Iran does not plan to respond unless Israel launches a major attack.
He said, “As long as there is no new adventure on the part of Israel against our interests, we will not have any new reactions.”
But the Foreign Minister warned that if Israel attacks Iran, the response will be swift and harsh.
He said, “If Israel takes decisive action against my country and this is proven to us, our response will be immediate and to the maximum extent and will make them regret it.”
The latest cycle of violence between Israel and Iran began on April 1 when Israel bombed an Iranian consular building in the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing two generals and five officers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Iran responded 12 days later, launching an unprecedented direct military attack on Israel using more than 300 missiles and drones. But the attack did not cause significant damage. Almost all of the missiles and drones were intercepted by Israeli, US and other allied forces.
Amir Abdullahian said the attack was intended as a “warning.” “We could have struck Haifa and Tel Aviv,” he said. He added: “We could also have targeted all of Israel's economic ports.”
He added: “But our red lines are civilians.” “We only had a military purpose.”
Although Israel has been locked in a shadow war with Israel for decades, with Iran arming and training anti-Israel proxy forces in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the Iranian air strike marked the first time Tehran has conducted an overt military attack. On Israel.
In the days that followed, the Biden administration urged Israel to exercise restraint and not carry out a retaliatory attack that could lead to all-out war between the two old rivals.
But Israel responded on Thursday evening by striking a military airport near the city of Isfahan in central Iran. Iranian state media reported that nuclear facilities in the area were not damaged, and there were no reports of casualties.
Iranian state media downplayed the attack and was met with mostly silence from Israeli officials. Experts said the limited scope of the strike and the lack of public statements afterward seemed to indicate that both sides were looking to ease tensions.
American officials called for calm. “We don’t want to see this conflict escalate,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday.
The Biden administration accused Iran of being “complicit” in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, pointing to Tehran's years-long efforts to arm and train Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip.
Iran touts its support for Hamas, but the government said it did not order or coordinate the October 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people.
In his interview, Amir Abdollahian said that Iran had no prior knowledge of the Hamas attack. He also said that Hamas is not a terrorist organization but a liberation movement that opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
He described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “troubled” and blamed the Israeli government for the faltering hostage negotiations. He accused Israel of demanding excessive compensation for its failure to achieve its goals in the war on Gaza.
Amir Abdullahian said: “You were unable to destroy Hamas or arrest the leaders inside Gaza, you were unable to disarm Hamas, and you were unable to destroy weapons and equipment.”
He added, “So she had to resort to killing women and children, and now at the negotiating table they are trying to get what they could not get on the ground.”
However, the Foreign Minister said he hoped an agreement could be reached soon to release the hostages as part of a broad settlement. Hamas is “ready to move forward with the release of prisoners within the framework of a humanitarian political package that includes everything.”
He added: “I think now is the right time.” “There's a good chance this is the case.”
