Tehran signals no reprisal against Israel after drones attack Iran

Its muted response and silence from Israel and the US appear gauged towards averting region-wide war

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DUBAI/JERUSALEM - Explosions echoed over an Iranian city on April 19 in what sources described as an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation - a response that appeared gauged towards averting a region-wide war.

 The limited scale of the attack and Iran's muted response appeared to signal a successful effort by diplomats who have been working to avert all-out war since an Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel on April 13.

Iranian media and officials described a small number of explosions, which they said resulted from air defences hitting three drones over the city of Isfahan in central Iran. Notably, they referred to the incident as an attack by "infiltrators", rather than by Israel, obviating the need for retaliation.

A senior Iranian official said there were no plans to respond against Israel for the incident.

"The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack," the official said.

Israel said nothing about the incident, and its ally Washington refused to be drawn.

Asked about it repeatedly at a press conference in Italy, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would not comment apart from saying that the US was committed to Israel's security but not involved in any offensive operations.