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Iranian FM:
Operation True Promise ‘a warning’ to Israel
‘Iran could have hit Haifa, Tel Aviv’
“We could have also targeted all the economic ports of Israel,” the foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said in an interview with NBC News.
“But our red lines was civilians,” he added. “We only had a military purpose.”
Iran launched extensive missile and drone strikes late Saturday night on the Israeli-occupied territories, marking the first direct attack by the Islamic Republic against the regime.
The series of retaliatory strikes, dubbed Operation True Promise, inflicted damage on Israeli military bases across the occupied lands.
It was in retaliation for the Israeli attack on April 1 against the Iranian consulate in Damascus, located next to the embassy building in Damascus’s Mezzeh district.
The airstrike killed two senior Iranian military personnel who were on an advisory mission to Syria as well as five of their accompanying officers.
Referring to an alleged Israeli attack on Iran on Friday, he described the weapons that were used in the attack as more like children’s toys.
“What happened last night was not a strike,” Amir-Abdollahian said. “They were more like toys that our children play with – not drones.”
On Friday, the sound of explosions was heard near Isfahan and the northwestern city of Tabriz after air defense systems fired at “suspicious objects”.
Iranian officials said important facilities in the Isfahan Province, especially nuclear facilities, are completely safe and no incidents have been reported.
Amir-Abdollahian said Iran was not planning to respond to the attack unless Israel launches a significant attack.
“As long as there is no new adventurism by Israel against our interests, then we are not going to have any new reactions,” he said.
But the foreign minister warned that if Israel did attack Iran, the response would be swift and severe.
“If Israel takes a decisive action against my country and this is proven to us,” he said, “our response will be immediate and to the maximum and will cause them to regret it.”