World leaders are urging for calm after reports of an Israeli strike on Iran, escalating tensions in the already volatile Middle East region. The reported attack, which caused explosions in a central province of Iran, has sparked fears of direct hostilities between the two arch-foes.
Israeli officials have remained silent on the attack, while Iranian officials downplayed its significance. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian dismissed the attack as a “desperate attempt to make a victory out of their repeated defeats”, stating that no deaths or damage were caused by Israeli micro-drones used in the operation.
The retaliation comes after Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones in response to an air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, which was attributed to Israel and resulted in the death of seven Revolutionary Guards. The situation has rattled world markets, with prices of oil, gold, and equities fluctuating.
Despite the escalating tensions, there are conflicting reports on the nature of the attack, with Iranian state media denying that Iran was attacked from outside. The U.N.’s atomic watchdog confirmed that there was no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites, and Washington reportedly received advance notice of the strike but did not endorse it.
As the situation unfolds, calls for peace are growing louder, with some individuals in Tehran expressing their opposition to war and the killing of people. The international community is closely monitoring the situation, hoping to prevent further escalation and find a peaceful resolution to the conflict.