Iran's unprecedented ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1 shocked the world. Benjamin Netanyahu's hands were shaking shook as he read out the counter threats. This is an important signal for Russia.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran, by striking Israel on the evening of October 1, exercised its right to self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. He stressed that the attack was carried out only to strike military and security facilities "responsible for the genocide in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon."
"Our action is concluded unless Israeli regime decides to invite further retaliation. In that scenario, our response will be stronger and more powerful. Israel's enablers now have a heightened responsibility to rein in the warmongers in Tel Aviv instead of getting involved in their folly," the minister wrote on X platform.
Iran's major attack on Israel has demonstrated that Iran is capable of overcoming Israel's air defenses. Iran has also proved that it can strike Israel if it wants to. Noteworthy, if Iran had had an intention to launch a nuclear strike, it could have used its ballistic missiles for that as well.
However, there are things that do not allow us to affirm that this was an adequate response from Iran to Israel's actions.
Information about the strike was revealed in advance indicating the time and even targets — military facilities. Although Teheran claimed that it did not warn anyone, it did not change its plans accordingly against the background of the leak. Israel thus took advantage of the situation and either removed or hid equipment at its military bases.
Many wonder what is going to change after the October 1 missile attack. The answer is simple — nothing is going to change.
Now let us compare the damage. Israel has annihilated:
Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been displaced and it is unclear when they can return to their ruined homeland.
All this is on one side of the scale. What is on the other side? A few craters at Israeli military facilities.
Iran's response appears to be sovereign and powerful, but in reality it is not an equal exchange of damage at all.
No one has declared war on anyone. In fact, everything is reminiscent to the previous missile strike in April (that everyone has already forgotten about) with a slight increase in the number of missiles.
There is a very positive aspect in all this for Russia. Netanyahu's hands were shaking when he was commenting on the strike. One shall assume that he is not sure about the outcome of the conflict. The Prime Minister of Israel pledged to take retaliatory measures against Iran.
"Iran made a big mistake tonight, and it will pay for it," Netanyahu said.
So far the world has witnessed Israel's missile strike on Lebanon rather than on Iran. This suggests that something has gone wrong for the US-Israel tandem. Therefore, all Western air defense missiles, as well as other weapons, will now go to Israel and not to Ukraine.