Iranian air-defense systems thwarted a drone strike on a military facility in the central city of Isfahan, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported on April 5.
The April 4 attack, which targeted the city’s Amir al-Momenin military complex, failed to cause any damage, according to Tasnim.
The incident is “under investigation,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told reporters.
A similar incident occurred in late January, when another site in Isfahan—also military—came under attack by multiple drones. Tehran later blamed Israel for that attack, which also reportedly failed to destroy its target.
Israel, which neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the January attack, hasn’t commented on the latest reported incident.
Striking Iran in Syria
Syria, too, has been the target of several recent attacks by Israel, which has long been regarded as a key U.S. ally in the region. Israeli officials say the attacks target Iranian military assets deployed in Syria.On March 31, Israeli warplanes struck positions near Damascus, killing two members of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC personnel had been serving as military advisers in Syria, where Iran has maintained a military presence—at Syria’s invitation—since 2015.
A week earlier, Israeli warplanes struck northwestern Syria’s Aleppo airport, causing significant damage and temporarily halting the airport’s operations.
It was Israel’s third attack on the airport within the previous six months.
Since Israel’s establishment in 1948, it has fought three major conflicts with Syria. The two countries have never had diplomatic relations and technically remain in a state of war.
US Carrier Strike Group in Region
The latest incidents come amid steadily mounting tension and violence in the region, which has also involved U.S. troops deployed in Syria.On March 23, a U.S. base near the northeastern Syrian city of Al Hasakah was attacked by a drone that U.S. defense officials claimed was “of Iranian origin.” According to the Pentagon, the attack left a military contractor dead and a dozen servicemen injured.
The United States responded by striking positions in eastern Syria that it said were linked to the IRGC.
According to U.S. officials, the strikes killed several IRGC fighters. But sources quoted by the Iranian media said that the strikes had targeted a grain facility and that no Iranians were killed.
Following the exchange, the United States extended the deployment of a carrier strike group in the Eastern Mediterranean near the Syrian coast.
“The extension of the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group ... allows options to potentially bolster the capabilities of U.S. Central Command to respond to a range of contingencies in the Middle East,” a CENTCOM spokesman said on March 31.
He added that a fresh squadron of A-10 attack aircraft would also soon be deployed to the region.
U.S. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has said the United States would “act forcefully” to protect U.S. military personnel and their allies in Syria.
Initially deployed in 2015, the U.S. military presence in Syria is believed to consist of roughly 900 troops, concentrated mainly in the country’s northeast.
Damascus, along with Tehran and Moscow, view the ongoing U.S. presence in Syria as a violation of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Washington says the deployments are necessary to protect its local allies and prevent a resurgence of the ISIS terrorist group.
Iran: Mending Fences with Arab Foes
On April 3, Tehran vowed to take “decisive measures” to protect its assets and personnel deployed in Syria.In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent U.N. envoy, said Iran would “take decisive measures to protect its forces, interests, and facilities from any threat or unlawful act perpetrated by the United States or others.”
He also stressed that Iranian forces in Syria were there at the latter’s invitation, and were therefore “totally legal.”
Meanwhile, despite mounting tension with both Israel and the United States, Iran is now in the process of mending fences with traditional Arab foes—including two longstanding allies of the United States.
On April 4, Tehran appointed an ambassador to the United Arab Emirates for the first time since 2016.
The next day, it announced that Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian would meet his Saudi counterpart this week in Beijing—the first such meeting in more than seven years.
