An explosion occurred in Iran on Sunday night. As the state news agency IRNA reported, a defense ministry ammunition factory near the city of Isfahan was attacked with several small aircraft. The Fars agency released a video of an explosion. State media wrote that the attack had been repelled.
According to the Iranian Defense Ministry, it was a military attack. Three of the aircraft were destroyed by the defense system. No one was injured in the attack. Parliament’s security committee announced on Sunday that the government would send a team of experts to Isfahan to investigate the background to the attacks. In addition to military experts, members of the Security Committee should also take part in the investigations and then announce the decisions made by the political leadership.
Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian described the attacks as cowardly and at the same time ridiculous. Such attacks did not undermine the country’s military or nuclear achievements, he said, according to the Tasnim news agency. Amirabdollahian did not say who he believed was responsible for the attacks. In political circles, however, there is talk of the two Iranian arch-enemies Israel and the USA. That Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing people “familiar with the operation,” that Israel was behind the attacks.
The explosion in Iran also concerned Ukraine on Sunday. Kyiv made a connection to the war in Ukraine. “The logic of war is inexorable and murderous,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter. “And he gives the authors and accomplices hard bills. (…) Ukraine warned you.” Iran has officially declared itself neutral in the war, but Kyiv has accused it of having supplied Russian troops with drones for attacks on Ukrainian cities, among other things.
US government does not rule out military action
The US government, meanwhile, did not rule out military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. During his trip to the Middle East, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with Al-Arabiya that all options are on the table. When asked if that included a military option, Blinken reiterated, “All options are on the table.” However, he also said that the preferred route is through diplomacy. Iran had the chance to return to the international nuclear deal but turned it down, Blinken said. As early as the summer of 2022, US President Joe Biden had not ruled out an attack “as a last resort”.
Negotiations to revive the 2015 Vienna nuclear deal between Iran and the West have been stuck in an impasse for many months. According to diplomats, Tehran blocked an agreement shortly before it was concluded. The brutal suppression of the recent protests in Iran had also shaken confidence in the negotiations.