Tehran: Iran has vowed to respond to Israel’s strikes on the country, which Tehran says killed five people, but said it does not want a wider war.
“We do not seek war, but we will defend the rights of the people and the nation, and we will give an appropriate response to the Zionist entity’s aggression,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday, according to media reports.
The Iranian President warned tensions would escalate if Israel “continues its aggression and crimes” and accused the US of “provoking the regime into committing these crimes”.
Iran’s official news agency IRNA also quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying Iran was not seeking war, but adding that it would respond to any aggression by Israel at an “appropriate time”.
Israel has said its strikes on Iran early Saturday hit military targets and were in response to Iranian attacks on Israel earlier this month, CNN reported.
Israel’s Chief of the General Staff, Herzi Halevi, warned on Sunday that any threat against his country would be dealt with militarily.
He added that Israel had “used only a portion” of its military capabilities during Saturday’s strikes on Iran.
“We will now see how things develop. We are prepared for all scenarios in every arena,” he said.
Israel had a relatively muted public posture immediately after the strikes, which was intentional, according to a source familiar with the government’s thinking, aimed at allowing Iran to downplay the strikes and avoid further escalation.
Iran’s government seemed to seize that opportunity initially, claiming the strikes caused only limited damage at military sites, even as it acknowledged that one civilian and four Iranian soldiers were killed.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Sunday that he has held phone calls with his Israeli and Iranian counterparts and pressed for de-escalation, CNN reported.
A civilian was killed in Saturday’s Israeli strikes on Iran, bringing the death toll from the attack to five, according to the country’s state-run news agency, IRNA.
On Saturday, the news agency had said four Iranian army personnel were killed in the strikes.
Israel launched direct strikes on what it said were military targets in Iran early Saturday, in a high-stakes retaliation to Tehran’s ballistic missile barrage earlier this month.
