Nothing confirms yet that this was an Israeli attack. What is certain is that Iran reported three explosions that occurred very early this Friday morning in the city of Isfahan, located in the center of the country, and its surroundings. The IDF refuses to comment, although this incident comes less than a week after the Iranian attack on Israel, itself carried out after strikes attributed to Israel on an Iranian consular building in Damascus (Syria) on April 1.
According to Iranian state media cited by the Reuters news agency, these explosions were due to the action of the Iranian air defense system, which would have destroyed three drones located above the city of Isfahan . Also according to Reuters, an Iranian analyst said that these mini-drones possibly came from within the country itself, which no official has confirmed yet. Likewise, neither Tehran nor Tel Aviv have officially designated the person responsible for sending these drones.
An “important city”
However, Isfahan does not seem to have been chosen at random. As reported by the Guardian or the American news agency Associated Press (AP), this city is home to many important installations including factories linked to the manufacturing of drones. “Obviously, it is a military base from which drones targeted Israel that was targeted by the attack this Friday morning,” cautiously observes Jonathan Piron, historian specializing in Iran at the Etopia research center in Brussels, Belgium).
According to this specialist, Isfahan is an “important city” where “a nuclear research center” is located. “It is a large city in the country, a historic city where there are also many sensitive sites, in the city itself or in its immediate environment,” he summarizes, citing in particular the “sensitive nuclear site of Natanz” located in the region, about a hundred km north of the city of Isfahan.
This site has been targeted several times by acts of sabotage, in which Israel was singled out. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, affirmed this Friday morning that “no damage” had been reported at Iranian nuclear sites.
A military base targeted?
But for now, the precisely targeted targets remain complex to establish. According to the Iranian Fars news agency, Iranian anti-aircraft defense was activated near an army military base located northeast of Isfahan. According to the Guardian, it would be that of Shekari. This, adds AP, would house a fleet of American-designed F-14 Tomcats planes, purchased before the Iranian revolution of 1979.
Two other explosions were reportedly heard on Friday in Qahjavarestan, northeast of the city of Isfahan, and at the city's airport, which is in the immediate vicinity.
For Elizabeth Sheppard-Sellam, lecturer at the University of Tours and specialist in defense and security subjects, this attack is “very clearly targeted”. “It is also perhaps to say:
we
(Israel)
have not touched the nuclear bases, but we can touch nearby
,” she adds while recalling that the potential range of a drone does not is “not very long”. “So either the launch was done internally from Iran, or from the surrounding borders. »