"We urge Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation," US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett told reporters, according to AFP.
Israel carried out strikes on Iranian targets in Tehran and several other provinces early Saturday morning, around 2 am local time. Israel said the strikes were in response to Iran’s attacks in the past.
Iran said Israel hit military bases in the capital Tehran, the western province of Ilam and southwestern province of Khuzestan. It claimed that the missiles were “intercepted” and that the damage was “limited,” reported the state-owned IRNA news agency.
Savett said that the Israeli response was “an exercise in self-defense and specifically avoided populated areas and focused solely on military targets, contrary to Iran's attack against Israel that targeted Israel's most populous city.”
Iran launched waves of missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander. In April, Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for a strike on Tehran’s embassy in Damascus that killed two Iranian generals and other officers. Iran blames Israel for the attack.
The US National Security Council spokesman said that Washington did not take part in Israel’s overnight operation and that the US seeks to “accelerate diplomacy and de-escalate tensions in the Middle East region.”
Tensions between Iran and Israel escalated after the Palestinian Hamas movement carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, last year, sparking an ongoing war that has spread to Lebanon.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said in a social media post on Friday that he spoke with his Iranian counterpart, discussing the conflicts in the Middle East.
“I urged for restraint. All parties must work to prevent further escalation,” he said.
