All news

Expert suspects radicals of being behind Isfahan drone attack

According to Mehran Kamrava, the incident will hardly lead to any major consequences or provoke a regional escalation

CAIRO, February 2. /TASS/. The radical Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) organization, viewed as terrorist in Tehran, may have been behind last weekend’s drone attack on an Iranian military facility in Isfahan, Mehran Kamrava, Professor of Government at Georgetown University Qatar, told TASS.

Asked who he believes might have carried out the attack, he said, "The most plausible explanation, to me, points to Mojahedin-e-Khalq, an organization sponsored by Saudi Arabia and India with the US as a stakeholder, of course."

Kamrava questioned reports saying that either the United States or Israel could have attacked the Isfahan facility. "The fact that `US officials’ were so fast to notify the media about the alleged involvement of Israel in the attack or that the US itself was behind it should divert attention from the true culprit," he said, noting that the attack would have caused much more damage had Israeli forces been involved in it.

According to the expert, the incident will hardly lead to any major consequences or provoke a regional escalation. "I don’t think this will be as resounding as, say, the assassination of [the commander of the Quds Force, a division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,] General [Qasem] Soleimani. But this will certainly play a major role in Iran’s strategic calculations and response," Kamrava emphasized.

Isfahan incident

The IRNA news agency reported on Sunday night that a powerful explosion rocked the city of Isfahan in central Iran. Later, the Iranian defense ministry said that a drone attack had been attempted on one of its centers on Saturday. One drone was downed and the other two hit defensive traps and exploded, Iran’s top brass said. No one was hurt and minor damage was incurred. Tehran did not say who it thinks might have been responsible for the attack.

On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials and people familiar with the operation, that the drone attack was carried out by Israel. Prior to that, Al-Arabiya television quoted sources as saying the US Air Force and "one more country" attacked the Isfahan military plant. US officials told the Al Hadath TV channel that Israel was not involved in the attack, which they said was aimed at "showing Iran and Russia" that the US is ready to counter "the production and export of [ballistic] weapons."

Israel never claimed responsibility for the incident.

Tags