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SvennoJ on 14 April 2024
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Iran says it warned US its bases will be targeted if it backed an Israeli response

Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, has warned that an Israeli response to the Iranian military operation would be “much bigger”, according to Tasnim.

The news agency quoted him as saying that the reason for last night’s attack was that Israel had crossed Iran’s red lines.

Bagheri said Iran conveyed a message to the US through the Swiss embassy that if it participated “in further aggressive Zionist moves through its bases or military assets across the region, and this is proven to us, its bases and assets and personnel in the region will have no security”.

He added: “We will see it as aggressor as well and react accordingly.”

More from Iranian chief of staff

Mohammad Bagheri says the operation “reached all its goals” and that no further operations are planned if Israel does not respond, according to comments carried by Tasnim.

He added the attack did not target any civilian or economic interests, instead focusing on military assets, particularly an intelligence base in Mount Hermon that was used to facilitate the assault on the Iranian consulate in Syria, along with the Nevatim Airbase in the Negev desert from where Israeli fighter jets that targeted the consulate were launched.

Bagheri said both were “significantly destroyed and disabled” and warned that Iran is capable of launching an attack “tens of times stronger”.


IRGC says attack achieved ‘success that exceeded expectations’

Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the IRGC, has told state media that information is still coming in, but the initial Iranian assessment is that the operation achieved “a level of success that exceeded our expectations”.

“Naturally, people living in occupied lands, Zionist officials and the terrorist and occupying armies of the Zionist regime and the US have a better understanding of the pummeling effects of these attacks at this moment,” he said.

Salami said the US and France provided air cover for Israel in Iraq, Jordan and even parts of Syria, but “tens” of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles managed to punch through the layers of defensive capabilities.

“We could have launched a much larger attack, but we limited it to the capabilities that the Zionist regime had used to attack the Iranian consulate and martyr our dear commanders.”


What weapons did Iran strike Israel with?

What weapons did Iran choose to deploy? Here is Al Jazeera defence correspondent Alex Gatopolous’s take:

  • Iran fired a mix of drones, cruise missiles and about 110 ballistic missiles.
  • The drones were small and used in a “cheap cruise missile way”.
  • We’re talking about 50kg (110 pounds) compared with a tonne of warheads for ballistic missiles. They’re designed to try and overwhelm Israel’s advanced air defence systems, which are multilayered.
  • Iran is holding a lot of its inventory back, which includes hundreds of more missiles to a few thousands more drones.
  • Israel’s Nevatim airbase was hit by at least 15 ballistic missiles, but the Israelis intercepted most of them.