Axios: Israel informed Iran in advance of the attack and the targeted sites and warned it against responding

One of the sources told the site that one of the channels that conveyed messages to Iran before the Israeli strike was Dutch Foreign Minister Casper Veldkamp, who wrote on the X platform hours before the Israeli attack: “I spoke with the Iranian Foreign Minister about the war and the growing tensions in the region. I urged restraint. All parties must act to prevent further escalation.”

US officials said they expected Iran to respond to the Israeli attack in the coming days but in a limited way that would enable Israel to stop the “tit for tat” cycle. “Our goal is to accelerate diplomacy and de-escalate tensions in the Middle East,” said National Security Council spokesman Sean Savitt. “We urge Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation.”

The American newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, quoted informed sources as confirming that several Arab and European countries had given Iran a warning about the Israeli attack hours before it occurred.

The sources added that Israel's warning specified what it intended to target and that it would avoid oil and nuclear sites, and the warning included that if Iran planned to respond, subsequent attacks would be more powerful.

The White House announced that the Israeli attack on military targets in Iran was in the context of "self-defense, and in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1."

The White House urged Iran to stop attacking Israel to break the cycle of violence. "We urge Tehran to cease its attacks on Israel to end the cycle of fighting without further escalation," said National Security Council spokesman Sean Savitt, stressing that the United States was not involved in the Israeli strikes.

Tasnim News Agency, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, quoted sources as confirming that the Israeli missiles were unable to hit any military sites of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard west and southwest of Tehran, adding that the explosions were due to the air defenses confronting Israeli military attacks.

Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said that contrary to foreign media claims, no explosion had occurred in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, while Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted relief sources as saying that no incident had been reported in or around the capital that required intervention.

Source: Axios + Agencies