Iran Blames Israel for Isfahan Drone Strike, Claims ‘Legitimate Right’ to Respond

An Israeli army Heron TP drone, known locally as the Eitan, flies during a display at the Palmahim Air Force Base in Israel in this March 7, 2007, file photo. (Ariel Schalit/AP Photo)

Iran has officially blamed Israel for a drone strike that damaged a military facility recently in the Iranian city of Isfahan.

“Preliminary investigations suggest that the Israeli regime was responsible for this attempted act of aggression,” Saeed Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, said on Feb. 2.

Iran “reserves its legitimate right … to defend its national security and respond to any threats or wrongful actions by the Israeli regime.” he said in a statement delivered to the U.N. Security Council and the secretariat-general.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a weekly Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem on Jan. 15, 2023. (Menahem Kahana/Pool via Reuters)

On Jan. 28, a military facility in Isfahan, located in central Iran, came under attack by drones of unknown origin. According to Iranian authorities, the “unsuccessful” attack caused limited damage to the facility but didn’t result in any casualties.

Despite widespread speculation of Israeli involvement, the Jewish state—a longtime enemy of Iran—has not claimed responsibility for the incident.

Nevertheless, a day after the strike, the Wall Street Journal published an article explicitly stating that Israel was behind the attack. To support its assertions, the newspaper cited unnamed “people familiar with discussions about the operation.”

Israel Mum on Drone Strike

If the drone strike was in fact carried out by Israel, it would be the first known Israeli attack on Iran since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reassumed the premiership last December.

On Jan. 30, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel, where he held closed-door talks with Netanyahu, known for his hawkish approach to Iran.

At a subsequent press conference, Blinken said he and Netanyahu had discussed “deepening cooperation to confront and counter Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region and beyond.”

In recent months, Western capitals have accused Iran of providing advanced combat drones to Russia for use in the latter’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

While Tehran admits to supplying Russia with drones, it says the drones were delivered before Russia invaded Ukraine early last year. Moscow, for its part, denies using Iranian drones in the ongoing conflict.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters affiliated with Iran's separatist Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), man a position near the town city of Altun Kupri (Perdi), north of Kirkuk, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, on Nov. 23, 2022. (Safin Hamed/AFP via Getty Images)

The Kurdish Connection

Officials in Tehran say last week’s drone strike, which occurred deep inside Iranian territory, was likely staged from somewhere inside Iran.

On Feb. 2, Iran’s Nour news agency claimed that drone components and “explosive materials” used in the strike had entered Iran from next-door Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.

The news agency also claimed to have information suggesting that “Kurdish opposition groups” based in northern Iraq had smuggled the materials across the border “on the orders of a foreign security service.”

While the news agency did not identify the “foreign security service” by name, Tehran has previously claimed that Israel’s Mossad intelligence service uses Iraq’s Kurdish region to stage attacks inside Iran.

Last summer, Iranian authorities arrested what they described as a “sabotage team” comprised of Kurdish militants who they accused of working for Israel. Iranian security officials said at the time that the team had intended to sabotage a “sensitive” military facility in Isfahan.

In December, four people were executed in Iran after being convicted of working for Israel’s Mossad.

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 19, 2022. (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)

‘Foreign Actors’ Blamed for Unrest

Since last September, Iran has struggled to contain anti-government protests that first erupted in the capital Tehran when a young woman from the majority-Kurdish city of Saqez died in police custody.

The unrest has been largely concentrated in northwestern Iran, where most of the country’s roughly 10 million Kurds reside.

In late November, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian accused “foreign actors” of attempting to “foment civil war” in Iran.

While he did not name the countries allegedly involved, he claimed the same forces were arming “terrorists” based in Iraq’s Kurdish region as part of ongoing efforts to destabilize the country.

Late last year, Iranian missiles struck several targets in Iraq’s Kurdish region, including the headquarters of the Erbil-based Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Sulaymaniyah-based Komala Party.

In late November, Iran struck the office of the Free Kurdistan Party, a dissident Iranian-Kurdish group based near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

Tehran accuses the groups of fomenting unrest—at the behest of “foreign actors”—in Iranian cities near the border. Northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government vehemently denies the Iranian claims.

Baghdad, for its part, condemned the strikes, saying they constituted a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.