Allies call for restraint after airstrikes

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, added to calls for restraint to avoid further escalation in the Middle East, following Israel’s latest strike on Iran.

“We have to do everything possible [so] that all sides restrain from the escalation in that region,” she said during a visit to Finland. “It is absolutely necessary that the region stays stable and that all sides refrain from further action.”

Several EU countries, including France and Spain, have made similar pleas this morning.

Iran may have relied on Russian air defences to intercept the Israeli airstrikes overnight (George Grylls writes).

Tehran uses the Russian S-300 air defence system, which became fully operational in 2019. Originally developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s, the S-300 can shoot down planes, drones and ballistic and cruise missiles up to 93 miles away. The system is widely used in Ukraine and Iran is reportedly looking at purchasing the upgraded S-400 system.

Iran has produced air defences domestically, including Raad or “Thunder”, which Tehran has boasted is designed to shoot down US fighter jets.

Its air force remains relatively weak, however, relying on nine F4 and F5 fighter jets bought before the Iranian revolution in 1979. Tehran also has one squadron of Russian Sukhoi-24s, and a number of Mig-29s, F7s and F14s, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Having supplied Russia with thousands of Shahed “kamikaze” drones for its war in Ukraine, Tehran is looking to deepen its defence partnership with Moscow by purchasing two dozen Su-35 fighter bombers, which would dramatically modernise its Air Force.

Egypt said it was “deeply concerned” about the “continued mutual escalation” between Israel and Iran following the latest developments.

In a statement, Cairo warned of the consequences of the conflict expanding in the region.

Earlier this week Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, urged both Israel and Iran to show “self-restraint” in direct phone calls to his counterparts in the two countries.

Iran had promised a “massive and harsh response” to “even the tiniest invasion” by Israel, but has now poured cold water over reports of an attack on its territory (Samer Al-Atrush writes).

Minutes after explosions were heard over Isfahan, a central city that is home to a large military base, Iranian state media rushed to play them down as a handful of tiny drones, and an official said there was no plan to retaliate.

It is not clear whether this was Israel’s full revenge for Iran’s own direct attack last Saturday, or merely the beginning of reprisals. But if it ends here, Israel has just provided the region, and its western allies who called on it to stand down, an off ramp from a war with Iran that nobody wanted. It carried out a strike as it promised, but on a scale so minute that Iran could pretend it never happened.

China’s foreign ministry has said that it opposes any actions that “escalate tensions” in the Middle East.

Several countries had warned that a retaliatory attack by Israel against last weekend’s strikes by Iran would risk dragging the entire region into a wider regional war.

Israel’s strikes are thought to have targeted Iranian nuclear sites in the city of Isfahan, where three small Chinese-supplied research reactors are located.

Isfahan in central Iran is “back to normal” following the air strikes and residents will hold a demonstration in support of Gaza after Friday prayers, the Iranian Students’ News Agency said.

The agency said the city’s airport was also operating again.

Earlier, Iranian state TV said that the attack had caused “no damage” in the city.

The former head of Israel’s Defence Intelligence said that the attack showed that Israel could match Iran’s weapon capabilities with only a few strikes.

“This move wasn’t to achieve a big response from Iran, rather to show them that we can respond, and Israel’s ability to do so,” the retired Major General Amos Yadlin, a former fighter pilot, told Israel’s Channel 12.

“Iran sent Israel hundreds of missiles and failed to cause any damage; Israel sent Iran one, two or three — very few missiles — but managed to hit the exact parallel target to where Iran hit. A major airbase like Israel’s Nevatim, that houses its air force, fighter jets and maybe a missile defence system. It was also close to Natanz uranium enrichment facility.”

France is urging both sides to de-escalate their conflict and exercise restraint.

Jean-Noel Barrot, deputy foreign minister, said: “The attacks last weekend [by Iran] were unacceptable and France expressed its full solidarity with Israel while calling for de-escalation.”

He declined to comment on Israeli strikes on Iran overnight but said: “Israel has the right to defend itself against the attacks it has suffered within the rules of international law.”

Israel’s latest missile strike on Iran came only hours after the US vetoed a United Nations resolution to grant a request for full UN membership for a Palestinian state.

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was backed by 12 countries, with the US opposing and two countries — Britain and Switzerland — abstaining.

France and Japan backed the resolution, which had widespread support. Despite its use of the veto, Washington maintained that it still supported a two-state solution.

“This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood,” said Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN.

Oil prices, gold and safe haven currencies rose and stock markets fell after the reports of Israeli strikes in Iran but reaction became more muted as details emerged that the attacks were limited.

Brent crude rose by as much as $3 a barrel in the immediate aftermath of the strikes, pushing the price above $90, but it slipped back to trade up 1 per cent at $88. Gold rose by $7 an ounce to $2,386.77 after reaching more than $2,400 at the end of last week in expectation of Iranian retaliation to an earlier attack on Iran’s embassy in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

The FTSE 100 has opened about 30 points down at 7,847.41. The fall was not as sharp as in equity markets in Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2.7 per cent.

Israel has “a right to defend itself” but the UK is pushing towards de-escalation, a cabinet minister has said.

Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, refused to say whether the UK supported Israel’s reported missile strike in Iran.

He told Sky News: “I don’t want to get into hypotheticals, because the question you’ve asked begs many other questions as to what form exactly that retaliation may or indeed may not have taken.”

Earlier he told Times Radio: “We are pressing our Israeli allies and others in the region to really work hard towards de-escalation.”

On Saturday Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel, 99 per cent of which were intercepted by Israel with help from allies.

The latest strike came on the 85th birthday of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The date of the strike was described by experts as symbolic and not coincidental. Khamenei has been supreme leader since 1989. There was plenty of celebrating online from pro-Israeli supporters about the timing of the latest strike, with many sarcastically wishing Khamenei a happy birthday.

Oman, which has acted as a mediator in the Middle East, condemned the suspected Israeli attack on Iranian soil as well as “the repeated Israeli military attacks in the region”.

A spokesman said that the sultanate’s foreign ministry “appealed to the international community to address the causes and roots of tension and conflict through dialogue, diplomacy and political solutions, and to focus on ceasefire efforts in Gaza”.

On Wednesday Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman al-Safadi, said that an Israeli retaliation against Iran’s strikes last weekend could drag the whole region into a “devastating war” that would have serious implications for the rest of the world.

He said: “The risks are enormous. I think the message that should be conveyed to all is that escalation will help no one.”

Israel’s national security minister appeared to belittle the alleged Israeli strikes on an Iranian air base, tweeting a one-word response: “Disappointing.”

Itamar Ben Gvir used Hebrew slang with a word that can also be interpreted as “poor show” (Gabrielle Weiniger writes).

A senior Iranian official has said that there is no plan for immediate retaliation following the strike.

The official was quoted by Reuters as saying that there was “no clarification” about who was behind the strike.

Earlier, US officials confirmed that Israel had carried out fresh military operations against Iran but did not give any detail about the operations.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said there had been no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites after the alleged attack by Israel.

The agency said it was monitoring the situation very closely and pleaded for extreme restraint by all sides. It warned that nuclear facilities should never be a target.

Isfahan, where the reported strike took place, operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors and handles fuel production and other activities for Iran’s civilian nuclear programme.

It is also home to the underground Natanz enrichment site.

Iranian state TV said that all atomic sites in the area were “fully safe”. General Siavosh Mihandoost, a local army commander, said the incident caused “no damage” around Isfahan.

Earlier this week Iran warned that it might have grounds to review its “nuclear doctrine” if Israel targeted its atomic facilities.

The comment was made by a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander as speculation increased of the possibility of a fresh strike by Israel.

The incident sparked concerns about the conflict escalating again in the seas of the Middle East, where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen have been attacking ships in protest at the war in Gaza.

The British military’s Maritime Trade Operations centre warned ships in the region that they might see increased drone activity in the skies. “There are currently no indications commercial vessels are the intended target,” it wrote.

The Houthis have launched at least 53 attacks on shipping since November, according to US authorities, seizing one vessel and sinking another.

Houthi attacks have dropped back in recent weeks as the rebels were targeted by a US-led airstrike campaign in Yemen and as the threat led to fewer ships passing through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

A Syrian war monitoring group said that Israel had conducted a strike on a military radar installation in the country, hours after apparent Israeli strikes targeted Iran.

The strike hit a radar installation in western Syria, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A western official told the Times that Israel had struck at least one site in Iran, something Tehran quickly denied. Iranian officials said that air defences had been activated in Isfahan against what they described as small drones.

Israel had promised to retaliate after Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles against the Jewish state last week.

The US and other countries had called on Israel to stand down or at least temper its response to avoid all-out war with Iran.

Iran fired air defence batteries on Friday morning after reports of explosions near a major airbase at the city of Isfahan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. The agency reported that the country’s nuclear facilities were “completely safe”.

A video of the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, a uranium conversion facility near Isfahan, was published by Iran’s Tasnim news agency as purported proof that the site was not damaged. It featured a man checking his watch at about 5.47am before focusing on what appeared to be an anti-aircraft gun.

Several Iranian nuclear sites are located in Isfahan province, including Natanz, the centrepiece of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme.

If confirmed, the strikes follow days of intensive international diplomacy aimed at preventing a wider conflagration in the Middle East.

On Saturday Tehran launched a barrage of more than 300 ballistic and cruise missiles, and armed drones, at Israel. The attacks caused only minimal damage. Iranian officials said their actions were in response to the deaths on April 1 of seven leading members of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp in a strike on a building close to the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Israel has not denied carrying out the attack.

Israel had come under pressure from the US, Britain and other countries who fear a broader war in the region to call off its retaliation for the Iranian attack on Saturday.

Those attacks caused only minimal damage, and had come in response to an Israeli airstrike on April 1 that levelled Iran’s consulate in Damascus and killed several Iranian officers, including its top commander in the country.

The Iranian state’s Press TV quoted officials denying there had been any attacks, saying air defences had been activated earlier to intercept drones.

Hossein Dilirian, the spokesman for Iran’s space agency, said that there were no missile strikes inside the country but that air defences had shot down some quadcopter drones fired from inside Iranian territory. “A failed attack, with a few quadcopters,” he wrote on Twitter/X.