Iran downplays claims of Israeli airstrike

Iranian pro-government media downplayed reports of airstrikes inside Iran on Friday morning. Nevertheless, Iranian media’s reports also betrayed a concern across the country about the alleged airstrikes. 

Reports at ABC News in the morning had claimed that Israel carried out strikes in Iran. It came five days after Iran launched 350 drones and missiles at Israel and two weeks after Iran accused Israel of a strike in Damascus.

A strike targeted a site in Iran early Friday morning, two Israeli defense officials confirmed to The New York Times. There were reports of explosions in Isfahan. 

Iranian media showed a video of what they claimed were quiet scenes around the country, trying to show that very little had actually happened.

What was reported in Iran?

According to Iran’s Fars news, “This morning, some local sources reported that a sound similar to an explosion was heard in the west of Tabriz city. Investigations by Fars reporter show that there was no explosion in Tabriz, and the air defense fired upon seeing a suspicious object.”

The same Iranian media said flights were returning to normal in Iran. “The nuclear facility in Isfahan is completely safe. The report of some foreign media about the incident in this facility is incorrect,” Fars News noted.

It also noted that air defenses had been activated at a military base in Isfahan and that Iranian army radar had picked up several targets. “Windows of several office buildings have been broken.” The reports also reference an incident at another site near Tabriz and at an air base.

Overall, the theme in Iranian media in the morning was to downplay the claims of airstrikes.

 This enables the Iranian regime to save face and message that all is well at home. The reports in Iran enable the regime to make choices about what it will do going forward. On the one hand it allows Iran to portray its air defense as having protected the country. 

This means that Iran can portray itself as defending against an attack successfully, the same way Israel, the US and others defended against the Iranian attack on April 13-14.

Iran’s regime seeks to portray the country as secure and strong. In general, over the last years, Iran has sought to increase its power in the region and project its power by attacking others. 

For instance, in January, Iran attacked Syria and Pakistan using missiles. Iran claimed it was targeting “terrorists.” Iran also attacked Saudi Arabia in 2019.

Iran has also taken credit for numerous attacks on the Kurdistan region of Iraq, killing a Kurdish businessman and members of his family last year. 

This gives the Iranian regime a sense of pride in its ability to strike at others and not receive any blowback.

The current tensions with Israel require the regime in Iran to continue to claim that it is the aggressor and that it is able to strike at Israel without a response inside Iran. 

This is part of the general narrative of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which often claims that Israel is on the defensive in the region and that Iran is on the winning end of the struggle against Israel and the US. 

Any attack inside Iran that illustrates Iran’s inability to protect its bases or territory would showcase that Iran’s narrative is false, and this would lead to a sense that the regime is a paper tiger. 

This is the challenge Iran faces today. It is downplaying the incidents on Friday, while Iran continues to boast that any attack on Iran will lead to retaliation. 

Iran must now decide if it will disclose more details about any incidents, and through the disclosure, it will then have to weigh what kind of response will be put in place.