ISRAEL-IRAN | A Growing SHADOW WAR?

On 28 January 2023, what appears to have been a drone strike took place against a weapons factory in Isfahan, Iran. While there was relatively little international coverage of the attack, at least at first, speculation quickly grew that Israel had been behind the operation (although other immediate suspects included Ukraine, Azerbaijan and even Saudi Arabia). However, while Iran has now formally blamed Israel for what it has called a “cowardly attack“, it has nevertheless played down the incident - arguing that it managed to shoot down two of the drones and that a third had merely done minor damage with no casualties. Meanwhile, Israel has yet to openly accept responsibility for the incident. This raises the question as to why the response has been so low key? In truth, it plays out against a history of covert confrontation between the two countries - a confrontation that has often been called a cold war or “shadow war“. While Israel and Iran enjoyed good relations for many decades