Iran on Saturday launched over 300 missiles at Israel in revenge on its embassy in Syria which claimed the lives of its officials including a senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ overseas Quds Force. However, Israel claimed that it intercepted ‘nearly all’ missiles launched by Iran. 

US had 72 hours’ notice about Iran attack

Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday said that Tehran had informed the neighboring countries and the United States about its “limited” and “self-defense” attacks on Israel around 72 hours ago. 

However, the Biden administration dismissed Abdollahian’s statement saying Washington had contact with Iran through Swiss intermediaries but did not get any 72 hours’ notice. 

Also Read | Live updates on Israel-Iran tensions

“That is absolutely not true. They did not give a notification, nor did they give any sense of … ‘these will be the targets, so evacuate them’,” the official clarified as quoted by Reuters. 

“We received a message from the Iranians as this was ongoing, through the Swiss. This was basically suggesting that they were finished after this, but it was still an ongoing attack. So that was (their) message to us,” the US official added. 

Turkey spoke to US, Tehran before the attack

Turkey had spokes to both Washington and Tehran before the attack, the country’s foreign ministry said, adding that it had conveyed messages as an intermediary. 

A Turkish diplomatic source stated that Iran said the reaction (drone attack) would be a response to Israeli attack on its Damascus embassy and it would not go beyond this. 

“We were aware of the possibilities. The developments were not a surprise,” the Turkish source added. 

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Published: 15 Apr 2024, 07:19 AM IST