Arab News (Saudi): Iran says ‘concluded’ retaliation against Israel, summons Western envoys

A police officer inspects the remains of a rocket booster near Arad, Israel on April 14, 2024.(Reuters)

https://arab.news/zzwg9

• Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi warns Israel and its allies against any ‘reckless’ actions

Updated 13 sec ago

AFP

April 14, 2024 10:37

TEHRAN: Iran on Sunday urged Israel not to retaliate militarily to an unprecedented attack overnight, which Tehran presented as a justified response to a deadly strike on its consulate building in Damascus.

“The matter can be deemed concluded,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a post on social media platform X just a few hours after the start of the operation late Saturday.

“However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe,” the Iranian mission warned.

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi warned Sunday Israel and its allies against any “reckless” actions after Tehran’s drone and missile attack, which marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israeli territory.

“If the Zionist regime (Israel) or its supporters demonstrate reckless behavior, they will receive a decisive and much stronger response,” Raisi said in a statement.

After numerous countries condemned the attack, Tehran’s foreign ministry summoned the French, British, and German ambassadors “following the irresponsible positions of certain officials of these countries regarding Iran’s response,” a statement said.

Iran informed the US that its attacks against Israel will be “limited” and for self-defense, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran on Sunday.

Late Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps announced that they had launched “dozens of drones and missiles” toward military sites on Israeli territory.

“Iran’s military action was in response to the Zionist regime’s aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus” earlier this month, the Iranian mission to the UN said, dubbing it “legitimate defense.”

Israel’s army said it had shot 99 percent of the drones and missiles with the help of the United States and other allies, declaring Iran’s attack “foiled.”

The Iranian army chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri said the attack has “achieved all its objectives.”

Bagheri said Iran’s retaliation targeted an “intelligence center” and the air base from which Tehran says the Israeli F-35 jets took off to strike the Damascus consulate on April 1.

“Both these centers were significantly destroyed and put out of order,” he said, though Israel maintains that the attack only resulted in minor damage.

“There is no intention to continue this operation,” he said.

Experts have suggested that Saturday’s slow-moving drone attack was calibrated to represent a show of power but also allow some wiggle room.

“It appears that Iran telegraphed its attack on Israel to demonstrate it can strike using different capabilities, to complicate the (Israeli army’s) ability to neutralize the assault but also to provide an off-ramp to pause escalation,” said Nishank Motwani, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Washington.

“Tehran can escalate if it chooses to across a range of vectors,” said Motwani, including via Lebanon’s Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, sea attacks, “or hitting soft Israeli targets globally.”

Over the last two weeks, the Iranian authorities had repeatedly vowed to “punish” Israel after the death of seven Guards including two generals of the Quds Force in the attack that levelled the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Iran has blamed Israel for the attack.

In the days after the strike, Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel will be “slapped for that action.”

Since a revolution in 1979 in Iran which toppled the US-backed Shah, Israel has been the sworn enemy of the Islamic republic.

Iran has often called for the destruction of Israel, with support of the Palestinian cause one of the pillars of the Islamic revolution.

However, until Saturday Tehran had also refrained from a direct attack on Israel.

Instead, it has backed members of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” against Israel, including Hezbollah and Yemen’s Tehran-aligned Houthi rebels, since the outbreak of war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7.

Hours before the strikes on Saturday, Iran seized an Israeli-linked container ship in the Gulf which Washington called “an act of piracy.”

During the night, Tehran also warned the United States, urging it to “stay away” from its conflict with Israel.

“If necessary,” Tehran “will not hesitate to take defensive measures to protect its interests against any aggressive military action,” Iran’s foreign ministry said.

“The next slap will be fiercer,” warned a new mural unveiled overnight in Tehran’s Palestine Square, where several thousands gathered, shouting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”

Before Tehran launched its attack, Israel warned Iran that it would suffer “the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further.”

Israel has not revealed what a potential response would look like.

An Israeli attack on Iran’s territory, possibly targeting military or nuclear sites, could not be ruled out, according to experts.

As a precaution, Iran’s Imam Khomeini international airport and the Mehrabad airport, which is mainly dedicated to domestic flights, will remain closed until Monday at 06:00 am (0230 GMT), according to ISNA news agency.

Several international airlines have suspended flights over Iranian airspace.

Countries including Russia and France have asked their citizens to avoid traveling to Iran and Israel.

CNN: Lukashenko undermines Putin’s Ukraine claim on Moscow concert hall attack

By Christian Edwards,

Published 4:31 PM EDT, Tue March 26, 2024

Lukashenko, pictured here in July 2023, may have muddied Putin’s claims that Ukraine was involved in the attack on a Moscow concert hall.Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images CNN  — 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko appears to have cast doubt on Russia’s claims that Ukraine was involved in the brutal attack at a Moscow concert hall last week.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre, which killed at least 139 people, and released graphic footage of the incident, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested, without evidence, that Ukraine had helped orchestrate it.

Putin on Saturday claimed that a “window” had been prepared for the attackers to escape to Ukraine, which Kyiv has denied.

But Lukashenko, one of Putin’s most loyal allies, on Tuesday appeared to contradict the Kremlin’s claims, saying that the attackers initially intended to enter Belarus rather than Ukraine.

“They could not enter Belarus. Their handlers… knew that it would be a very bad idea to try to enter Belarus, because Belarus immediately reinforced security measures,” Lukashenko said, according to Belarusian news agency Belta.

Related article Moscow concert hall attack suspects appear in court as Russia defends security services

Lukashenko said he received reports from Russian authorities “minutes” after the attack began and put Belarusian units on combat alert, setting up checkpoints on roads to prevent the attackers entering the country.

“That’s why there was no chance they could enter Belarus. They realized it. So they took a turn and headed to the Ukraine-Russia border,” he said.

The attackers stormed Crocus City Hall in a Moscow suburb on Friday, shooting civilians at point blank before setting the building on fire, causing the roof to collapse while concert-goers were still inside.

Four suspects, who are from the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan but worked in Russia on temporary or expired visas, were detained later Friday night in Russia’s Bryansk region, near the border with Ukraine and Belarus.

In his first national address after the attack, Putin on Saturday alleged that the men “tried to hide and move towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the border.”

Putin on Monday conceded the attack had been carried out by “radical Islamists,” but still tried to pin ultimate responsibility on Ukraine.

Putin lights a candle on Sunday in memory of victims of the Crocus City Hall attack.Kremlin

Other Kremlin officials have doubled down on the claims. Alexander Bortnikov, director of Russia’s Federal Security Services (FSB), alleged on Tuesday that Ukraine was involved in the “training of militants in the Middle East.”

Ukraine has vehemently denied involvement in the attack and called the Kremlin’s claims “absurd.” Others have speculated why the attackers would try to flee through a heavily militarized section of the border, with a large Russian troop presence.

And Lukashenko, in attempting to promote Belarus’ standing as a reliable ally of Russia, may have inadvertently further weakened Putin’s allegations.

Belta reported that Lukashenko agreed to “seal off its section of the road that could be used by the criminals” when he received intelligence from Russian officials, including Bortnikov, that the attackers were “moving in the direction of Bryansk.”

Lukashenko said he and Putin exchanged phone calls, claiming he accepted Putin’s request to help seal off the roads into Belarus. “Absolutely. We are doing everything,” Lukashenko replied.

He said he shared the information because he was aware that Putin had been reproached for his response to the tragedy. Putin had been criticized for not addressing the nation until more than 19 hours after the attack began.

Instead, Lukashenko said, he and Putin “did not sleep for 24 hours,” as they worked to address the threat.

Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, a suspect in the attack, appears Sunday at the Basmanny district court in Moscow.Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters

A total of 11 people have been arrested in connection with the attack on the concert hall, Russian officials said.Four appeared in a Moscow court on Sunday and three on Monday. It’s not clear if the remaining four are still in detention or have appeared before a judge.

Three of the Tajik suspects were bent double as they were marched into a Moscow courtroom on Sunday, while the fourth was in a wheelchair and appeared unresponsive. They were charged with terrorism and face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The men looked battered and bruised as they were brought into the courtroom. Videos circulated widely on Russian social media appeared to show some of them being violently interrogated, including one that appeared to show the use of electrocution. In another video, a suspect had part of his ear cut off and stuffed in his mouth.

D/C: Not the greatest PR campaign on the part of Russia!

“ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre, which killed at least 139 people, and released graphic footage of the incident, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested, without evidence, that Ukraine had helped orchestrate it.“