Iran is still considering how to respond to last weekend’s Israeli airstrikes. It wants the United Nations Security Council to meet and consider the question, The Guardian reported Sunday. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country is not seeking a war but it reserves the right to retaliate “appropriately” to Israel’s offensive.
“We do not seek war but we will defend the rights of our nation and country,” Pezeshkian said during a Sunday cabinet meeting. He added: “We will give an appropriate response to the aggression of the Zionist regime.”
It is not yet known whether “appropriate” refers to direct military action, indirect assistance to its militant armies like Hezbollah or a diplomatic solution. His statement occurred against the political backdrop of a debate on whether the relatively subdued Israeli attack warrants military retaliation but also whether Iran will be perceived as pusillanimous if it does not strike back.
The US and Russia are both concerned that the chronic military strikes and counter-strikes in the region could foment a full-scale war between Israel and all of its adversaries. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, provided a restrained response to the Israeli action, saying the “evil committed by the Zionist regime two nights ago should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated”.
Khamenei left it “up to the authorities to determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and to take actions that serve the interests of this nation and country.” Iran has hinted at no military response as it minimized any damage caused by Israel and has not objected to President Joe Biden’s request for no further escalation.
Instead, it suggested Iran might restrain itself even as “the Israeli regime’s actions constitute a grave threat to international peace and security and further destabilize an already fragile region,” Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, wrote in a letter Saturday, The Guardian noted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the Israeli air force on its work, saying it “attacked throughout Iran. We hit hard Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us. The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, and it achieved all its objectives.”
According to a report in the The New York Times, Israel produced significant
damage in its attack, destroying vital air defense systems that provide security for oil and petrochemical refineries and damaging a large gas field.
Four Iranian soldiers were left dead by the airstrikes, Pezeshkian noted. “Enemies of Iran should know these brave people are standing fearlessly in defense of their land and will respond to any stupidity with tact and intelligence.”
