‘Strategic doctrine’: Iran hails military shift after Beirut raid response

Tehran, Iran – Iranian authorities have expressed readiness for stronger military confrontation if necessary, after ending an exchange of fire with Israel that raised concerns of a return to all-out war.

Iran’s armed forces on Sunday night launched an air attack against Israel in response to strikes on the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh in Lebanon, as they had previously threatened to do if Israeli raids continued.

Israel’s government said it targeted a command centre of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, while US media reports said Washington was aware of and supportive of the attack that killed at least two people.

Iran fired ballistic missiles from multiple cities, including Kermanshah in the west, in a likely attempt to showcase retained military capabilities, despite nearly 40 days of intense bombardment during the war that the United States and Israel began on February 28 .

In launching operation “Nasr” – which means victory – Iranian authorities also showed that they were willing to immediately enforce a deterrent warning for the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut, rather than reacting to the killing of Iranian generals or accumulated grievances, as with previous instances of attacks against Israel.

The emboldened move diverges from a long-standing policy of absorbing hits first and retaliating at a later time and place of their choosing.

“As we promised, we have acted,” Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the unified command of Iran’s armed forces, said in a video statement on Monday afternoon, after Iran and Israel exchanged several rounds of fire for several hours.

The Islamic Republic and its “axis of resistance” of aligned forces across the region will “never bow in submission to enemies that have been defeated in war”, he said. The command later said its attacks were over, but warned of harsher ones if the Israeli targeting of Lebanon persists.