Drones understood to be heading towards Israel as Biden returned from Delaware on Saturday to meet with national security team

Iran said it launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel on Saturday in a major attack following days of acute tension building up in the region and warnings from the US and elsewhere about a wider conflict erupting.

Air attack warning sirens began wailing over Jerusalem just before 2am local time on Sunday after the weapons were fired a few hours earlier from Iran with US and Jordanian military assisting Israel’s air defenses in intercepting the first incoming barrage.

With weapons believed to be still in the air en route to Israel, Iran’s mission to the United Nations posted on X: “Iran’s military action was in response to the Zionist regime’s aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus. The matter can be deemed concluded.”

However, it threatened more severe action in the face of further Israeli aggression and warned the US and Jordan specifically not to assist Israel.

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Edit: here are links to the NYT and BBC live feeds.

Edit 2: updated summary and archive to reflect article changes.

  • @AA5BEnglish
    6•8 months ago

    I’ve seen the media careful to make a distinction between the embassy and “a consular building adjacent to the embassy”. I did a quick search expecting the to be the defense.

    But international law is the real wtf. According to the Wikipedia entry

    is the obligation of the country in which an embassy is located to protect the embassy, but international treaties do not expressly prohibit a third country to target diplomatic premises if they host combatants and are targeted in an act of self-defense, although a claim of self-defense cannot usually justify an attack on the territory of a country not participating in hostilities.

    So, it’s Syria’s fault for not protecting diplomatic buildings? Plus Syria probably has a claim against Israel, whereas Iran doesn’t?

    I’m sure Israel will attempt to argue self defense based on the targeted officers and however they may have participated in the original attack and involvement of Yemen, but that’s a pretty big stretch.