Türkiye’s foreign ministry said it had spoken to Washington and Tehran before the attack.
Washington Baghdad Dubai:
Turkish, Jordanian and Iraqi officials said on Sunday that Iran’s widespread notification days before Saturday’s drone and missile attacks on Israel prevented mass casualties and a dramatic escalation, but a U.S. official denied this .
Most of the hundreds of drones and missiles launched by Iran in retaliatory attacks were shot down before reaching Israeli territory, although a young girl was seriously injured as the region braced for further escalation.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Sunday that Iran had given its neighbors and Israel’s allies 72 hours’ advance notice of an impending U.S. attack, a move that would allow them to thwarted the attack.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said it had spoken to Washington and Tehran before the attack, adding that it had acted as an intermediary to deliver messages to ensure the response was proportionate.
A Turkish diplomatic source said: “Iran said the reaction was in response to the Israeli attack on its embassy in Damascus and would not go beyond that. We were aware of the possibility. The development was not surprising. “
However, a senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration denied Amirabdullahian’s claims, saying that Washington had contacted Iran through a Swiss intermediary but was not given 72 hours’ notice.
“This is absolutely not true,” the official said. “They gave no notice, no sense… ‘These are going to be targets, so evacuate them.'”
The official said Tehran did not send a message to the United States until after the attack had begun, with the intent to be “highly damaging,” speculating that Iran said it had sent the notification to cover up the embarrassment of a failed attack.
“We received information from the Iranians through Switzerland as this thing was ongoing. It basically indicated that they were done after this, but it was still an ongoing attack. So that’s what (their) gave us information,” the U.S. official said.
However, Iraqi, Turkish and Jordanian officials all said that Iran had issued an early warning of the attack last week, which included some details.
This attack using drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles is likely to cause serious casualties and trigger large-scale retaliation from Israel and the United States, and may even escalate into a regional conflagration.
U.S. officials said on Friday and Saturday they expected an attack to be imminent and urged Iran to oppose it, with Biden succinctly saying his only message to Tehran was: “No.”
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Two Iraqi sources, including a government security adviser and a security official, said Iran informed Baghdad of the attack through diplomatic channels at least three days before it took place.
The exact timing of the attack was not disclosed at the time but was passed to Iraqi security and military authorities hours before it took place, allowing Baghdad to close its airspace and avoid a deadly incident.
“The government clearly understood from Iranian officials that U.S. forces in Iraq also had advance knowledge of the attack,” an Iraqi security official said.
A senior Jordanian official said Iran had summoned Arab envoys in Tehran on Wednesday to inform them of its intention to launch an attack, without specifying when.
Asked whether Iran had also provided details on targets and types of weapons used, Jordanian sources did not respond directly but said that was the case.
An Iranian source familiar with the matter said Iran had informed the United States of the planned date of the attack through diplomatic channels including Qatar, Turkey and Switzerland, and assured that the attack would be carried out in a manner that would avoid triggering a response.
The extent to which escalation can be avoided remains a question. The U.S. official said Biden has told Israel that the United States will not join any Israeli retaliation.
However, Israeli Minister Benny Gantz said on Sunday that Israel was still weighing its response and would “clear the price to Iran in a way and at a time that suits us.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
