Punished from four directions’: This is how Iranian, Arabic media covered the attack

Media in the Middle East have focused on the Iranian attack on Israel that began on April 13 and continued throughout the night. This is a historic evening in the region and the media of Iran as well as many countries in the region feel they are witnessing history.

Pro-government media agency Tasnim News said, “In this attack, a combination of hundreds of drones and a large number of missiles of different types have been used. More importantly, this attack did not come from Iran only, and this regime is being punished from four directions.”

Iran claimed that it attacked Israel from Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq, as well as from Iran itself.

Fars News in Iran noted that the IRGC “announced in a statement on Sunday it has launched massive missile and drone strikes against the occupied territories in response to the Zionist regime’s terror attack against Tehran’s diplomatic premises in the Syrian capital Damascus which resulted in martyrdom of seven military advisors.”

Tasnim called the attack “massive” and also said it involved drones and missiles.

Tasnim also said the missiles “hit targets” in Israel. However, there was no evidence of this when Tasnim initially reported it. The report also claimed Hezbollah carried out an attack with dozens of missiles.

Regional countries are watching closely

Al-Ain media in the UAE covered the Iranian attack with numerous articles. It wrote about how Israel might respond. The report wondered whether Israel would actually respond to the attack and noted Israel had scrambled aircraft and air defenses in response.

Al-Ain also quoted Israeli media and noted that Iran had launched drones in an attack. The reports also covered the fact Israel had closed schools and canceled large gatherings.

Al-Arabiya focused on how Jordan had closed its airspace and how the US was backing Israel. It also noted that Israel was ready for any scenario and that Iran had threatened countries that might aid Israel.

Overall, the coverage of the attack illustrates that regional countries are watching closely how Israel might respond and they are also watching which countries will back Israel.

This could be a watershed moment in the region and many countries want to make sure they are on the right side of history. Iran has been seeking to try to isolate Israel and use the October 7 attack as a game-changer to advance a kind of new world order in which Iran, Russia, China, Hamas, and other fellow travelers, such as backers of Hamas in Turkey and Qatar, may work together.

On the other hand, countries that have peace with Israel, such as Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, and Bahrain, are watching closely what happens next as well. Iran wants to show it can attack Israel and get away with it, but Iran is also cognizant of its image in the region and wants to make sure it has warned other countries sufficiently.

Seth Frantzman is the author of Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machine, Artificial Intelligence and the Battle for the Future (Bombardier 2021) and an adjunct fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies.