VOA News | Thursday, April 18, 2024 
Iran warns Israel against attacking nuclear sites

Tehran, Iran — A senior Revolutionary Guards general threatened on Thursday to target Israel’s “nuclear facilities” if it strikes Iran’s sites, state media reported, anticipating retaliation for Tehran’s weekend attack. Israel has vowed a response to the Iranian aerial attack, which was mostly intercepted. World leaders have urged de-escalation. Violence involving Iran-aligned groups across the Middle East has soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war with the Tehran-backed Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack. Tehran’s first direct attack on Israel, launched late Saturday, was in retaliation for an April 1 airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two generals. Israeli officials have not said when or where the country would retaliate, but Ahmad Haghtalab, the Guards’ head of nuclear protection and security, said Iran would reciprocate any attack on nuclear sites. “If the Zionist regime [Israel wants to take action against our nuclear centers and facilities, it will definitely and surely face our reaction,” the official news agency IRNA quoted Haghtalab as saying…Read more