TEHRAN- Iran executed its long-awaited retaliation against Israel on Saturday and the early hours of Sunday morning by directly targeting the occupied territories from its soil.

The New York Times claimed Operation Truthful Promise was carried out with at least 185 drones and around 150 missiles. Despite Israel's egregious claim at having intercepted "99%" of the projectiles, footage captured by Israeli settlers in the vicinity of the targets showed Iran's missiles had landed exactly where they were meant to descend. 

The missiles and drones were fired from regions all across Iran. They passed by populated cities in Iraq, Syria, Jordan and occupied Palestine before hitting two Israeli military targets, one of them being a large intelligence base, Nevatim Airbase, from where an F-35 jet took off to target Iran’s consulate in Damascus. No civilian sites were damaged in the process, which proves the high precision of Iran's domestic-grown weapons. 

As mentioned by Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations, the attacks also did not breach any international law. Article 51 of the UN Charter pertains to the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense in the event of an armed attack against a member state. It reads:

"Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security."

Iran and Israel innately different

What's evident is that Iran's recent attacks and the assaults carried out by Israel across the West Asian region have been different in nature. 

Every strike the regime has carried out in the past 7 months and before that, was to assassinate individuals inside residential buildings, packed streets or even diplomatic premises. Israeli moves have all been in violation of international law. Topped with the genocide it is currently committing in Gaza, where every hospital, school, mosque, church, and home has been systematically destroyed, Israel has probably become the biggest breacher of international law in history.

Tehran could have easily destroyed big gatherings to give Israel a taste of its own medicine, or hit critical infrastructure to plunge it into social chaos. It, however, decided to play by the rules, and it still somehow got condemned by Israel's Western patrons, while Israel continues to enjoy full impunity.

The West denounced "in the strongest terms" Iran's lawful attempt at defending itself from a rogue regime that knows no limits, saying it's worried the move could escalate into a widespread conflict. Ironically months of witnessing genocide, heartbreaking scenes of mutilated and starving children, and Israel's continual aggressive assaults on neighboring regions, did not make the West feel any danger.

For Western states, the death of over 34,000 Palestinian civilians is nothing to fret over. What matters is Iran or any other country under Israeli aggression, would agree to come under attacks without an attitude. Western officials will spend their people's hard-earned tax money to help protect Israel's military sites, and defend the regime at UN meetings with unbelievable audacity. What they won't do, however, is make sure the over 2 million people in the besieged Gaza will not starve to death or get bombed into oblivion.

In the eyes of the U.S. and Europe, a free and democratic world is one where Israel can commit unimaginable crimes without anyone hitting back at it. Iran here, has decided it is time the situation changes. 
 

By Soheila Zarfam