The American leak that Israel is behind the attack on the Iranian weapons production facility in Isfahan, yesterday, shows that this is a very important event.
The political-security elite in Washington did not bother to address a marginal incident, and did so only to dissociate themselves from responsibility for it.
The hysterical and contradictory reactions from Tehran also indicate embarrassment, and probably also significant damage suffered by the facility, where advanced missiles and drones are believed to be manufactured. The photos circulated from the scene of the incident showed a large fire at the facility, but later the Iranians tried to claim that the drones attacked He was intercepted on their way and that no significant damage was caused.
The damage to the facility in Isfahan, photo: Reuters
Such an attack requires a combination of high-quality intelligence and high execution ability.
On the intelligence side, it is required to know in detail the facility, its contents and the exact location where the items that the attackers sought to damage are located, and as much as possible the number of people staying there.
It is likely that the timing of the attack - on Saturday evening, i.e. during the weekend holiday - was determined so that there would be as few people as possible in the facility, in order to minimize the harm to civilians and, as a result, the demand for revenge.
On the operational side, the ability to launch armed drones is required, which will explode on the target with maximum precision. Since these are relatively small drones (of the quadrocopter type, with four blades), they cannot be launched outside the borders of Iran and must be done from its territory.
This requires a high capacity, which exists only in a small number of countries in the world - Israel in the first place.
In the past, the Mossad has already been accused of attacking targets in Iran in a similar way, among other things in an attack carried out a year ago against a facility in Kermanshah where the Iranians also produced attack drones.
Rouhani
Embarrassed and threatening, photo: AFP
In the past year, Iran has greatly accelerated the production of drones, mainly of the Shahad 136 model, against the background of the contracts it signed with Russia, which is using them in its war in Ukraine. It was recently revealed in "Israel Hayom" that the two countries signed another contract, under which Tehran is supposed to supply hundreds of drones More to Moscow.
This is in addition to an Iranian effort to speed up the production and supply of drones to its proteges in the Middle East, primarily Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, as well as to the Shiite militias in Iraq.
This Iranian activity is very troubling to Israel, and one can assume that Ukraine and the countries in the West that support it as well.
It is reasonable, therefore, that the Americans were not surprised by the activity at the base and the attack on it, although the fact that they removed responsibility from themselves - through the leak to the "Wall Street Journal", yesterday - shows that they fear an Iranian backlash (probably against their forces in Iran), and perhaps even want to leave an opening For the continuation of the negotiations on the issue of the nuclear agreement.
The remains of the drones as presented by Iranian television, photo: Iranian television
Assuming that Israel is indeed behind the attack, this is the first action carried out under the new government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the past, the Mossad - under its previous head, Yossi Cohen - led an aggressive operational policy against Iran, and it seems that his successor, Dedi Barnea, also wants to continue on the same path.
These attacks are not only intended to disrupt and delay Iranian activity, but also to create deterrence, and naturally they also increase the friction between the countries.
Calls were already heard in Tehran yesterday to take revenge on Israel for the attack, and in Israel they should prepare for an Iranian counter-attack, perhaps in the same way that the Revolutionary Guards have taken in recent years of attempts to damage vessels in the Persian Gulf that are owned by Israel, as well as in an effort to damage Israeli targets and personalities around the world.
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