Iran warns Israel it is within its rights to respond to weekend attacks

Iran has warned it is ‘within its rights’ to respond militarily to Israel’s “precise” missile attacks over the weekend.

But the limited nature of the strikes by Jerusalem, which ‘killed four Iranian soldiers’ and were in response to the 200-ballistic missile attack by Tehran earlier this month, appeared to show Israel had heeded warnings from the United States.

And Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday said Israel's air strikes on the country should "neither be downplayed nor exaggerated".

However, it remains to be seen if a further escalation in the Middle East conflict will now ensue as Tehran plans its revenge.

Iran was quick to publicly also state it will be justified in launching further assaults on Israel.

In Tehran, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said it had a “responsibility” to defend itself.

But the ministry added that Iran also "recognises its responsibilities towards regional peace and security," a statement seen by many commentators as relatively conciliatory.

Iranian authorities said sites in Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam provinces were attacked by Israel overnight into Saturday.

The military claimed that the Israeli strikes had been successfully countered, although there was "limited damage" in some locations and four soldiers had been killed.

Following the attacks, Iranian state media carried footage showing traffic flowing normally in several cities, while school and sports activities were reportedly being held as scheduled.

The Israeli military announced the weekend’s retaliatory operation shortly after explosions were reported in Iran.

Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the military had demonstrated its preparedness "to defend the state of Israel".

He also warned if Iran started a new round of escalation, Israel would be "obliged to respond".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack, was "strong, precise and achieved all its objectives".

Retaliation by Jerusalem to the Iranian barrage of almost 200 ballistic missiles fired towards Israel on 1 October had been widely expected for weeks.

Tehran had claimed its attack had been in retaliation for the killing of Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil in July.

Many of its missiles were shot down by Israel and its allies but a small number struck central and southern Israel.

But the weekend’s ‘precise’ retaliation by Israel is being seen as the measured response which had been called for, both by the US and the UK.

Joe Biden and Sir Keir Starmer’s administrations again called for Iran not to hit back following the latest strikes, calling for an end to the cycle of violence.

Senior US administration officials said the US was informed of Israel's strikes beforehand, and that Washington had no involvement in them.

The attacks did not include Iranian oil infrastructure or nuclear facilities - targets the Biden administration had urged Israel not to hit - an official said.

The official said the US had encouraged Israel for weeks to conduct a response that was "targeted and proportional with low risk of civilian harm" and suggested that was "precisely what transpired" on Saturday evening.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement saying Israel chose its targets "in accordance with its national interests, and not according to American dictates".

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir said Israel had the right to defend itself against "Iranian aggression" and echoed calls for Iran to avoid retaliation, saying the UK would work to "de-escalate the situation across the region".

But Russia and other countries in the region, including US allies Jordan and Saudi Arabia, accused Israel of escalating the conflict.

Qatar expressed "deep concern about the serious repercussions that may result from this escalation", while Jordan described the attack as a "dangerous escalation".

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said "what is needed is to stop provoking Iran to retaliate, and to get out of the spiral of uncontrollable escalation".