Iran’s Air Defense System Hit, New Satellite Image Shows

The semi-official ISNA news agency detailed his engagements at the United Nations, highlighting his anti-Israel stances, interviews with American media, and comments on the recent attack on an airbase in Iran's Esfahan province.

ISNA reported an expert's view that "the foreign minister was able to use the opportunity… to explain the reasons for Iran's response to the Zionist regime, and to some extent dispel the incorrect narratives."

The report picked up by other news outlets in Tehran, also claimed that during Iran's April 14 missile and drone attack against Israel, supported by key Security Council members such as the UK, the US, and France, Israel portrayed itself as a “victim” while blocking any condemnation of its earlier attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria.

ISNA also praised the foreign minister's interview with CNN on Thursday in which Amir-Abdollahian said Iran's response to Israel “stayed within a minimum of frameworks,” noting that Tehran could have taken harsher measures.

In a discussion with NBC News on Saturday, the Iranian foreign minister addressed a recent unclaimed attack in central Iran, stating that the investigation was ongoing and that no direct links to Israel had been established yet. He described the drones involved in the incident as trivial, likening them to "toys that our children play with."

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not leave unanswered any action against its national interests … Iran’s response can come in many shapes and forms but we will do it tactfully,” said Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, who serves as a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament.

Reiterating the positions of senior Iranian officials, Abbaszadeh tried to downplay the Isfahan offensive, calling it “a show” performed by Israel in an attempt to “restore its dignity” following Iran’s missile and drone attacks last weekend. For the Israeli government, the media coverage of the incident was more important than its location and intensity, remarked the lawmaker.

On April 13, Iran launched its first ever direct offensive against Israeli territory with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles, 99 percent of which were downed, according to the Israeli army.

Early Friday, Israel reportedly targeted Esfahan's 8th Shekari Air Base in retaliation for Iran’s offensive. Though satellite images and reports indicate that a major defense system in the airbase was damaged, Iranian officials and state media have unanimously played down the operation.

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The regime has recently intensified its crackdown against critics, summoning those who have publicly expressed their disapproval of Tehran’s policy with regard to Israel. Earlier in the week, the government took legal action against a number of newspapers and influential journalists who failed to reiterate its rhetoric regarding the attack on Israel in their publications.

Prominent reformist commentator Abbas Abdi, investigative journalist Hossein Dehbashi, and whistle-blower Yashar Soltani were accused of “compromising national security” following their comments regarding Iran’s attack on Israel’s soil.

Ali Salehabadi, the managing editor of Setareh Sobh daily, criticized the government’s foreign policy with regard to Israel in shrouded remarks interwoven within the fabric of an article released on Saturday, asking what had made the West turn support Israel so soon after all but turning its back on the Jewish state. 

He also asked why the Arab masses and Arab states abandoned the ideas of 'throwing Jews in the sea and destroying Israel', and turned to compromise with Israel, Salehabadi wrote. He noted that some Arab countries such as Jordan collaborated with Israel, the US, the UK, and France to intercept and down Iranian projectiles before reaching the Jewish state.

He juxtaposed Iran’s declining economy and the rising regional tensions, warning that a war with Israel would target Iran’s economy and inflict damage to the people.

In more than a decade, the country's economic growth has averaged zero. The situation has been further exacerbated since the US withdrawal from the JCPOA nuclear deal in 2018. Over the past six years, the rial, Iran’s national currency, has fallen 15-fold, fueling inflation and plunging millions of citizens into poverty. Eqtesad 24 news website reported in February that almost one in every three Iranians is currently living below the poverty line as a result of soaring inflation in the past five years.

Meanwhile, Saber Golanbari, journalist and political analyst, wrote in his Telegram channel that neither Israel nor Iran seeks a direct confrontation due to the enormous costs of a war.

“The future is likely to usher in a new round of indirect warfare in various forms. Israel will most probably try to focus more than ever on sabotage against sensitive Iranian facilities as well as on indirect assassinations,” he pointed out.

On Saturday, The New York Times reported that a flap-lid radar was “damaged or destroyed” following the attack on Esfahan's 8th Shekari Air Base. The radar was a major part of the air defense system in the base which is located near the town of Natanz, home to Iran’s most famous nuclear facilities.

Prior to the incident, four trucks with missiles were positioned around the radar but the satellite images show they were not damaged in the strike. “The fact that they appear undamaged indicated that the attack had a very precise target,” New York Times wrote based on the analysis of satellite imagery.

The offensive “was calculated to deliver a message to Iran that Israel could bypass Iran’s defense systems undetected and paralyze them, using a fraction of the fire power Iran deployed last week when it launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel,” added the newspaper citing two Western officials.

Early Friday, explosions were heard near Esfahan as Israel reportedly launched a widely anticipated retaliatory strike. Since then, Iranian officials have unanimously tried to downplay the incident, with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian even refusing to acknowledge Israel’s part in the attack.

“It has not been proven to us that there was a connection between this and Israel,” he said in an interview with NBC News, further adding that the projectiles used in the incident were “more like toys that our children play with.”

Talking to New York Times, two unnamed Iranian officials confirmed that the projectiles struck an S-300 anti aircraft system in the airbase which is tasked with detecting and warding off aerial threats near the sensitive city of Natanz. Two years ago, Hamid Vahedi, the commander of Iran’s army air force, hailed the “strategic” role of the Shekari fighter base, saying it is “the heart of [Iran’s] air force.”

Meanwhile, military journalist Amir Bohbot said the offensive on the Shekari fighter base in Esfahan, a key site for Iran's nuclear and military operations, inflicted more damage than Iran's bombardment last week, while using one tenth of the weaponry.

“Now Iran realizes that if Israel did carry out the attack, it could next time target nuclear facilities relatively easily,” Bohbot said.

Last weekend, Iran launched its first ever direct offensive against Israeli territory with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles. The Israeli army announced that 99 percent of the projectiles were intercepted and downed by Israel and a US-led coalition.

The editor of Kayhan and a close confidant of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Hossein Shariatmadari, claimed only four quadcopters were involved in the Esfahan strike. “Three of them were destroyed by the Iranian defense and the fourth exploded in the sky.”

Shariatmadari claimed “Israel’s response was not on par with Iran’s attack, but Israel has other priorities, including Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, that could cripple Israel,” referring to Israel's current wars with Iran's proxies on its southern and northern borders.

In a post on X, Iran International producer Farzad Fattahi construed Israel’s attack on Esfahan’s airbase as a warning that cannot be slighted by the Iranian officials’ mockery and condescending attitude towards the incident.

“The collapse of the radar of a nuclear facility is like the activation of a ticking bomb,” he pointed out, further adding that Iranian officials had previously employed the same snobbish attitude and mocking tone when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018 disclosed the location of a secret nuclear facility in Turquzabad near Tehran.

Moreover, Ynet news website discussed Israel’s targeting Iran’s Russian-made S-300 defense system, saying it could also be interpreted as a warning to Moscow against cooperating with Tehran’s nuclear program.

NourNews, a media outlet close to Iran's Supreme Council of National Security, dismissed reports of damages to the defense system in Shekari airbase.

“Iran’s proxy forces can retaliate to the recent strike on [airbase in] Esfahan and Israel wants to prevent that from happening,” said Masoud Alfak, adding that “Israel now sees the best defense in an offense.”

On Friday, explosions were heard in Esfahan's 8th Shekari Air Base as Israel reportedly launched a widely anticipated strike in retaliation to a large-scale Iranian missile and drone attack over the weekend.

In less than 24 hours, airstrikes hit the headquarters and a major base of Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militia (Popular Mobilization Forces) in the Babylon governorate of eastern Iraq to the south of the capital city, Baghdad.

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According to Alfak, a vast network of hybrid warfare is currently underway between Israel and Iran and its proxies in the region. “Israel considers Tehran-backed proxy groups as part of its conflict with Iran.”

The Dubai-based analyst remarked that as long as the war in Gaza continues and Iran-Israel tensions persist, Tehran-backed proxies will continue their destabilizing actions in the region and will refuse to stay peaceful.

No one has claimed responsibility for the overnight strikes on Hashd al-Shaabi positions in Iraq. In a post on X, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) dismissed reports that Washington had a part in the operation. Citing an unnamed Israeli official, CNN reported that Israel also denied involvement in the incident.

For months after the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, the Iranian government avoided direct involvement in the conflict and used its proxies such as Yemeni Houthis, Hashd al-Shaabi, and Hezbollah to target Israeli and American interests in the region.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have risen sharply over the past weeks. On April 1, Israel launched a precision missile strike on Iran's consulate building in Damascus, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the highest-ranking commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force (IRGC-QF) in Lebanon and Syria. In retaliation, Iran launched its first ever direct strike against Israeli territory on April 14 with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles.

In a post on X, Jason Brodsky, Policy Director at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), attributed the overnight strikes in Iraq to Israel. “On April 17, Iraq’s national security advisor Qasim Al-Araji, a member of IRGC terrorists-backed Badr Organization, said Iran’s regime’s attack on Israel on April 13 created ‘a new deterrent policy’ in the region. And this is Israel’s response to him tonight in Iraq,” Brodsky pointed out.

Since October 7, Iran-backed forces in Iraq have been threatening to target Israel. Their anti-Israel rhetoric intensified after the April 1 attack in Damascus. Following the incident, the Iranian proxies in Iraq claimed two drone attacks on Israeli territory, one in Haifa and another in Golan Heights.

Furthermore, Tehran-backed Iraqi Hezbollah voiced its readiness to arm and equip 12,000 forces of “the Islamic resistance” in Jordan, threatening that country’s stability and the Hashemite kingdom.

“This threat is about opening a broad front against the Zionist regime, which is probably the most dangerous of all fronts because it could geographically threaten all the cities of the occupied territories and could facilitate attacks against many of the most sensitive targets, including Tel Aviv and [Israel’s] nuclear facilities,” Iranian semi-official news agency ISNA reported on April 4.

“It has not been proven to us that there was a connection between this and Israel,” he said in an interview with NBC News.

Early Friday morning, explosions were heard in Esfahan's 8th Shekari Air Base as Israel reportedly launched a widely anticipated strike in retaliation to an Iranian aerial assault last weekend.

In an attempt to downplay the incident, Amir-Abdollahian said what happened “was not a strike.” According to Iran’s top diplomat, the projectiles used in the incident were “more like toys that our children play with.”

“They took off from inside Isfahan and they flew for a few hundred meters and then they were downed and struck by our air defense,” he went on to say, in what appears to be a veil to avoid retaliation as international powers push for calm.

Meanwhile, New York Times reported that according to the analysis of satellite imagery, the Friday precision strike on Isfahan (Esfahan) damaged or annihilated the “flip-lid” radar, a significant part of the air defense system in Shekari Air Base.

Prior to the incident, four trucks with missiles were positioned around the radar but the satellite images show they were not damaged in the strike. “The fact that they appear undamaged indicated that the attack had a very precise target,” New York Times wrote, citing a former US government imagery analyst.

Israel has not officially commented on the attack.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have risen sharply over recent weeks. On April 1, Israel launched a precision missile strike on Iran's consulate building in Damascus, killing 7 IRGC senior officers, including two senior commanders. In retaliation, Iran launched its first ever direct offensive against Israeli territory last weekend with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles. Most were intercepted in a joint operation between Israel and its allies in a US-led coalition.