Tehran warns US against triggering war – media
Iranian diplomats have warned that American military action against their country would risk starting an open war, according to Newsweek. The comments come amid speculation surrounding Washington’s possible involvement in a recent drone attack on an Iranian military factory.
“The use of the military option at any level means US entry into the war,” Tehran’s Permanent Mission to the UN told Newsweek on Monday. Iran currently considers such a possibility to be “weak,” according to the statement. It added, however, that if “the US miscalculates and starts a war,” the consequences would be serious for the region and the wider world, and would be for Washington to bear.
The comments came after an attack on an Iranian Defense Ministry facility in the central city of Isfahan on Saturday night. Several news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and the Jerusalem Post, reported that Israel had launched the strike from within Iran. The attack allegedly involved three small drones carrying explosive charges.
Israel typically neither confirms nor denies claims of operations against Iran, although it is suspected of staging a number of sabotage attacks and assassinations of Iranian officials and scientists.
There was initial speculation in the Arab media that the explosions in Isfahan were the result of a US Air Force operation. Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder later stated that no American forces were involved in the strike, but declined to comment further.
Iranian officials would not assign blame to any party and claimed that the attack had caused minimal damage to the roof of the building, contrary to claims of a major success reported by the Jerusalem Post.
Meanwhile, an aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky implied that his country may have been involved. Kiev has accused Iran of supplying loitering munitions to Russia for its military operation in Ukraine, an allegation that Tehran and Moscow have denied.
Mikhail Podoliak tweeted that “war logic is inexorable and murderous” and that Ukraine “did warn” Iran. The aide to Zelensky had previously called for attacks on Iran over its purported assistance to Russia. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Kiev’s charge d’affaires to protest Podoliak’s remarks.
