Israel's unprecedented aerial assault on Iran has raised questions about the Iran's potential retaliation. Israel is claiming an extent of damage following their strikes while Iran is mulling a proposal reaction. The region of West Asia has been on edge in anticipation of Israeli retaliation for a ballistic missile barrage carried out by Iran on October 1, in which around 200 ballistic missiles were fired at Israel, Iran's second direct attack on Israel in six months. Watch to know more.

Israel Attacks Iran: Israeli Strikes 'Severely Harmed' Iran: Netanyahu

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday slammed Tehran's missile barrage at Israel while his government summoned the Iranian ambassador over the attack.

"The Iranian missile attacks on Israel must be condemned in the strongest possible terms," Scholz said, warning of "a further escalation of the already tense situation in the Middle East".

"Iran risks setting the entire region ablaze," he said in comments on social media platform X.

The foreign ministry said German citizens should leave Iran, warning against any travel to the Islamic Republic due to the "volatile and very tense" situation in the region.

The ministry said it had summoned Iran's ambassador over the attack.

A charge d'affaires responded to the summons as the ambassador was not in Berlin, ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told reporters.

Fischer rejected Iran's claim that the attack was a justified response to Israel's actions, including the killing last week of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

"We can only speak of self defence when one is repelling an ongoing or imminent threat, otherwise it is revenge," he said, adding that "revenge is not a category in international law".

Neighbouring Austria also summoned Iran's envoy to condemn the Islamic Republic's "dangerous escalation in an already highly explosive situation", adding Vienna "stands by Israel's security".

"All parties are called upon to exercise utmost restraint to reduce tensions," the foreign ministry -- which has also told Austrians to leave Iran -- said in a statement.

Scholz said Germany would continue its efforts to broker a truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

"Such a ceasefire must be the start of the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which clearly stipulates that Hezbollah must withdraw from the border area with Israel," he said.

The German leader reiterated a call for a Gaza ceasefire ahead of the anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in the Palestinian territory.

Palestinian militants took 251 hostages that day, with 97 still held inside the Gaza Strip, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead.

The hostages' "fate must be an incentive for everyone to reach an agreement based on the proposals made by US President (Joe) Biden", Scholz said.

Disclaimer: This story has been published from a news agency feed with minimal edits for grammar and punctuation. The headline may have been changed to better reflect the content of the story or to make it more suitable for WION&nbsp;audience.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday slammed Tehran's missile barrage at Israel while his government summoned the Iranian ambassador over the attack. "The Iranian missile attacks on Israel must be condemned in the strongest possible terms," Scholz said, warning of "a further escalation of the already tense situation in the Middle East".

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday slammed Tehran's missile barrage at Israel while his government summoned the Iranian ambassador over the attack. "The Iranian missile attacks on Israel must be condemned in the strongest possible terms," Scholz said, warning of "a further escalation of the already tense situation in the Middle East". "Iran risks setting the entire region ablaze," he said in comments on social media platform X. The foreign ministry said German citizens should leave Iran, warning against any travel to the Islamic Republic due to the "volatile and very tense" situation in the region. The ministry said it had summoned Iran's ambassador over the attack. A charge d'affaires responded to the summons as the ambassador was not in Berlin, ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told reporters. Fischer rejected Iran's claim that the attack was a justified response to Israel's actions, including the killing last week of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. "We can only speak of self defence when one is repelling an ongoing or imminent threat, otherwise it is revenge," he said, adding that "revenge is not a category in international law". Neighbouring Austria also summoned Iran's envoy to condemn the Islamic Republic's "dangerous escalation in an already highly explosive situation", adding Vienna "stands by Israel's security". "All parties are called upon to exercise utmost restraint to reduce tensions," the foreign ministry -- which has also told Austrians to leave Iran -- said in a statement. Scholz said Germany would continue its efforts to broker a truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. "Such a ceasefire must be the start of the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which clearly stipulates that Hezbollah must withdraw from the border area with Israel," he said. The German leader reiterated a call for a Gaza ceasefire ahead of the anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in the Palestinian territory. Palestinian militants took 251 hostages that day, with 97 still held inside the Gaza Strip, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead. The hostages' "fate must be an incentive for everyone to reach an agreement based on the proposals made by US President (Joe) Biden", Scholz said. Disclaimer: This story has been published from a news agency feed with minimal edits for grammar and punctuation. The headline may have been changed to better reflect the content of the story or to make it more suitable for WION audience.

West Asia crisis: Germany, Austria summon Iranian envoy over missile attack on Israel

Israeli PM Netanyahu said Iran would pay for its missile attack against Israel. There are fears Israel’s response to Iran could trigger a major war with US involvement. Washington has already expressed full backing for Israel. Meanwhile, Tehran said any retaliation would be met with "vast destruction." Watch in for more details!

Israel Vows Response To Iran Missile Attack As Fears Of Conflict Escalation Rise

#Gravitas | Israel destroyed an underground factory for precision missiles built by Iran, in Syria’s Hama province, located near the border with Lebanon. The factory’s destruction was aimed to deter the efforts of Iran and Hezbollah to produce medium-range precision missiles in Syria that could potentially hit targets deep inside Israel.

Israel’s hidden war: Iranian facility attacked in Syria

Days after Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah engaged in the heaviest exchange of fire since the start of the Gaza War, the United States said that it was keeping a close watch on the developments in West Asia. Watch WION for more on the story.

Israel-Iran Conflict: US says Iran and its proxies can attack Israel 'any time'

The Israeli Army has released a video showing strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon as fears of an all-out war grew. The US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln entered West Asia waters as tensions remain high over Iran's threat to retaliate against Israel. Watch in for more details!

West Asia Crisis: Hezbollah launches drone attack after Israel air strikes

Israel expects a major Iranian attack to be launched within days. Reports are indicating that Israeli intelligence officials believe that Iran has settled on attacking Israel in the coming days. Iran's expected retaliation could even come before scheduled ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel on the 15th of August.

West-Asia tensions: Is Iran preparing for large-scale assault?

Iran has rejected attempts by the US and Arab nations to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, as Israel braces for an attack from the Islamic Republic and the Lebanese Iran-supported Hezbollah. Watch in for more details!

Israel-Iran conflict | Will punish aggressor with power, decisiveness, toughness: Iran

I don't fancy hearing about the chances of a Third World War breaking out in some random Instagram story, but that is what happened. We live in a world of frivolous predictions. But then, social media can make bad things worse. I just shrugged my shoulders and went on to Twitter-turned-X to find 'World War 3' actually trending with a hashtag.

After taking a deep breath, all I can say is that what we have just had is not the start of a new world war but one of the biggest screw-ups in diplomatic history.

By striking an Israeli ship and then launching a swarm of drone bombs on Israeli territory, the clerics and their fellow power-wielders in Tehran may have won some headlines that speak of revenge after an Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic consulate building in Damascus on April 1 that killed a commander and seven officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). But a simplistic retaliation is not quite an act of meaningful revenge. What we have had so far is Tel Aviv fending the drones off with its "Iron Dome" defence. Such stuff may have visual appeal for the odd video or social media memes, but we need to look deeper to see the implications and the impact of what Iran has done.

The simple fact is that for all practical purposes, Iran is ploughing a lonely furrow in trying to be the loud guardian of Palestinian people. There is no doubt that Israel's savage war against Palestinians in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on its people last October has caused an unspeakable human tragedy. The diplomatic pussyfooting by the so-called world powers in the aftermath is nothing if not a conspiracy of drift. We have not even got a real, temporary ceasefire yet while children are killed, hospitals are bombed, civilians are targeted and whole cities being razed to the ground in Gaza.

There is little doubt that Hamas has been acting in tandem with or as an agent for Iran's Shia Islamist regime. But discretion is not part of Iran's revolutionary valour. It likes to unfriend old pals and make new adversaries all the time. Since fighting a war with deposed president Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the 1980s, it has offended Saudi Arabia with its support for Houthi rebels in Yemen, and this year even launched cross-border attacks against rebels in Pakistan's Balochistan region.

Last January, Islamic State terrorists killed more than 80 people near the grave of General Qassem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his death in a US drone strike. Soleimani was a sworn enemy of the Sunni-Salafi-Jihadist Islamic State whose war on the Shia Islamists of Tehran is only one of the many twisted sub-plots in the Muslim world's checkered history of little and big enmities.

The best thing going for Iran so far (if one might call it that) is that China and Russia love anybody doing anti-US acts and therefore keep their diplomatic silence loud. But that is hardly what the doctor ordered for suffering Palestinians, whose basic survival is at stake. All talk of a two-state solution that would help the rise of a Palestinian state is but a desert mirage, an elusive dream and a theoretical prospect best left to television studio panels.

The ground reality suggests that Iran has only worsened the case for Palestinians. I am tempted to compare Israel's Damascus attack as one resembling the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai by Pakistan-based terrorists in 2008. What India did after that was not a simplistic military retaliation but an elaborate diplomatic counter-offensive. Armed with dossiers and evidence, it built up a case for Pakistan as a state that harbours terrorists. It won sympathy and diplomatic support across the world of a lasting kind that isolated Islamabad.

Iran, on the other hand, prefers primitive retaliation. I know that in normal diplomacy, tit-for-tat acts are considered in the league of expected military responses. But what we have in the asymmetry of power in West Asia is a complex grid of relationships that make simplistic acts of revenge futile at best, and disastrous at worst.

Just when the whole world was coming around to a broad consensus on restraining Israel, we have the prospect (indeed, a reality) of Israel gaining diplomatic legitimacy all over again. Tehran has to take the blame for this.

The mysterious death in 2022 of 22-year-old woman activist Mahsa Amini, targeted by Iran's religious morality police, is still fresh in the minds of the world. Whether it is events at home or its abrasive behaviour within the Muslim world, Iran is a difficult customer for any diplomatic exercise. It has enough adversaries within the Muslim world not to be seen as a power of any consequence in the world order.

In such a backdrop, what we are staring into is a scenario in which the US is standing up for Israel all over again, aided by its rich Western allies. US President Joe Biden, facing elections in a country famous for its wealthy Jewish lobby, said on Friday: "We are devoted to the defense of Israel, we will support Israel, we will help defend Israel, and Iran will not succeed."

So, who is the winner? Certainly not Iran. The drone attacks in retaliation for the Damascus hit can only be seen as a shaky act of bravado that has caused a diplomatic mess. That is bad news getting worse for Palestinians.

I don't see a Third World War. What I see is a human tragedy worsened by the diplomatic immaturity of a dubious friend of the Palestinian cause.

I don't fancy hearing about the chances of a Third World War breaking out in some random Instagram story, but that is what happened. We live in a world of frivolous predictions.

I don't fancy hearing about the chances of a Third World War breaking out in some random Instagram story, but that is what happened. We live in a world of frivolous predictions. But then, social media can make bad things worse. I just shrugged my shoulders and went on to Twitter-turned-X to find 'World War 3' actually trending with a hashtag. After taking a deep breath, all I can say is that what we have just had is not the start of a new world war but one of the biggest screw-ups in diplomatic history. By striking an Israeli ship and then launching a swarm of drone bombs on Israeli territory, the clerics and their fellow power-wielders in Tehran may have won some headlines that speak of revenge after an Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic consulate building in Damascus on April 1 that killed a commander and seven officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). But a simplistic retaliation is not quite an act of meaningful revenge. What we have had so far is Tel Aviv fending the drones off with its "Iron Dome" defence. Such stuff may have visual appeal for the odd video or social media memes, but we need to look deeper to see the implications and the impact of what Iran has done. The simple fact is that for all practical purposes, Iran is ploughing a lonely furrow in trying to be the loud guardian of Palestinian people. There is no doubt that Israel's savage war against Palestinians in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on its people last October has caused an unspeakable human tragedy. The diplomatic pussyfooting by the so-called world powers in the aftermath is nothing if not a conspiracy of drift. We have not even got a real, temporary ceasefire yet while children are killed, hospitals are bombed, civilians are targeted and whole cities being razed to the ground in Gaza. There is little doubt that Hamas has been acting in tandem with or as an agent for Iran's Shia Islamist regime. But discretion is not part of Iran's revolutionary valour. It likes to unfriend old pals and make new adversaries all the time. Since fighting a war with deposed president Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the 1980s, it has offended Saudi Arabia with its support for Houthi rebels in Yemen, and this year even launched cross-border attacks against rebels in Pakistan's Balochistan region. Last January, Islamic State terrorists killed more than 80 people near the grave of General Qassem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his death in a US drone strike. Soleimani was a sworn enemy of the Sunni-Salafi-Jihadist Islamic State whose war on the Shia Islamists of Tehran is only one of the many twisted sub-plots in the Muslim world's checkered history of little and big enmities. The best thing going for Iran so far (if one might call it that) is that China and Russia love anybody doing anti-US acts and therefore keep their diplomatic silence loud. But that is hardly what the doctor ordered for suffering Palestinians, whose basic survival is at stake. All talk of a two-state solution that would help the rise of a Palestinian state is but a desert mirage, an elusive dream and a theoretical prospect best left to television studio panels. The ground reality suggests that Iran has only worsened the case for Palestinians. I am tempted to compare Israel's Damascus attack as one resembling the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai by Pakistan-based terrorists in 2008. What India did after that was not a simplistic military retaliation but an elaborate diplomatic counter-offensive. Armed with dossiers and evidence, it built up a case for Pakistan as a state that harbours terrorists. It won sympathy and diplomatic support across the world of a lasting kind that isolated Islamabad. Iran, on the other hand, prefers primitive retaliation. I know that in normal diplomacy, tit-for-tat acts are considered in the league of expected military responses. But what we have in the asymmetry of power in West Asia is a complex grid of relationships that make simplistic acts of revenge futile at best, and disastrous at worst. Just when the whole world was coming around to a broad consensus on restraining Israel, we have the prospect (indeed, a reality) of Israel gaining diplomatic legitimacy all over again. Tehran has to take the blame for this. The mysterious death in 2022 of 22-year-old woman activist Mahsa Amini, targeted by Iran's religious morality police, is still fresh in the minds of the world. Whether it is events at home or its abrasive behaviour within the Muslim world, Iran is a difficult customer for any diplomatic exercise. It has enough adversaries within the Muslim world not to be seen as a power of any consequence in the world order. In such a backdrop, what we are staring into is a scenario in which the US is standing up for Israel all over again, aided by its rich Western allies. US President Joe Biden, facing elections in a country famous for its wealthy Jewish lobby, said on Friday: "We are devoted to the defense of Israel, we will support Israel, we will help defend Israel, and Iran will not succeed." So, who is the winner? Certainly not Iran. The drone attacks in retaliation for the Damascus hit can only be seen as a shaky act of bravado that has caused a diplomatic mess. That is bad news getting worse for Palestinians. I don't see a Third World War. What I see is a human tragedy worsened by the diplomatic immaturity of a dubious friend of the Palestinian cause.

Iran’s drone swarm shows adventurism that hides a diplomatic disaster for the Palestinian cause

The Hamas war has pushed traders to cut their exposure to Israeli assets in response to worries of a retaliation by Iran. This caused the Israeli benchmark stock index and dollar bonds to fall to their lowest levels since last year. Watch in for more details!

Heightened fears of an attack by Iran weigh on Israeli assets