Why did Iran attack on Israel?

Analysis related to the strikes and the US response.

After threatening revenge for a deadly attack on its consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Iran sent drones and missiles towards Israel.

Although Israel has not officially acknowledged carrying out the consulate strike it is generally accepted that it was.

Iran has never directly attacked on Israel before this is the first one.

Israel and Iran have already been fighting secretly for years targeting one other's property without taking credit for their actions.

Since the Palestinian organisation Hamas launched an offensive on neighbouring Israeli communities in October of last year, there has been a significant increase in these attacks in the Gaza conflict.

What makes Iran and Israel opponents?

Prior to the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 which established a government that has made opposing Israel a central tenet of its philosophy the two nations were allies.

Iran wants to destroy Israel and does not acknowledge its right to exist.

The supreme leader of the nation Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called Israel a "cancerous tumour" that would surely be removed and wiped out.

Iran's speech the formation of proxy forces dedicated to Israel's destruction, the financing and arming of Palestinian organisations like Hamas and the Shia militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon and what Israel perceives as Iran's covert pursuit of nuclear weapons despite Iran's denials all indicate that Iran poses an existential threat to Israel.

Iran prepared to take revenge for the consulate attack.

Iran said that the attack on Israel on Saturday night was a response to an airstrike on its embassy complex in Damascus Syria on 1st April. Senior Iranian officers lost their lives in the strike.

Iran views the airstrike as a violation on its sovereignty and accuses Israel of carrying out it. Although Israel has not acknowledged carrying it out it is generally believed to have.

Thirteen persons were slain including Brig Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top commander of Iran's elite Republican Guards (IRGC) unit abroad, the Quds force. He had played a pivotal role in the Iranian plan to supply Hezbollah the Shia military force in Lebanon.

The attack on the consulate is part of a pattern of airstrikes targeting Iranian targets that are commonly linked to Israel. In recent months, airstrikes in Syria have claimed the lives of several senior IRGC commanders.

The IRGC supplies Hezbollah with weapons and equipment including highly accurate missiles via Syria. Israel is attempting to halt these supplies in addition to preventing Iran from escalating its military stance in Syria.

Who are the allies of Iran?

Iran claims that its network of supporters and proxy forces throughout the Middle East constitutes a "axis of resistance" that opposes Israeli and American interests in the area. It helps them in many ways.

Syria is the most significant ally of Iran. Iran and Russia supported Bashar al-Assad's administration in Syria through the civil war that lasted ten years.

Iran's closest ally among the militant groups in Lebanon is Hezbollah. Since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas, it has been exchanging cross border fire with Israel virtually every day. On both sides of the border, tens of thousands of citizens have been compelled to evacuate their homes.

Iran supports a number of Shia militias in Iraq that have used rocket fire to assault US sites in Jordan, Syria and Iraq. Three US soldiers died at a military station in Jordan forcing the US to lash out.

Iran backs the Houthi movement in Yemen which is in charge of the majority of the nation's territory. The Houthis have attacked Israel with missiles and drones to demonstrate their support for Hamas in Gaza. They have also attacked commercial vessels close to Israel's borders, sinking at least one ship in the process. In retaliation the US and UK have attacked Houthi targets.

Additionally Iran supplies weaponry and training to Palestinian armed groups such as Hamas which launched an offensive on Israel on  7 October, 2018, setting off the current Gaza conflict and entangling Iran, its proxies and Israel's supporters in the broader Middle East. Iran however disputes any involvement in the actual attack of 7 October.

Are Israel and Iran nuclear powers?

Though it maintains an official policy of planned ambiguity, it is assumed that Israel possesses nuclear weapons of its own.

Iran maintains that it does not possess nuclear weapons and that it is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons through its civilian nuclear programme.

At Iran's underground Fordo site, uranium particles with an enrichment of 83.7% purity or extremely near to weapons grade were discovered by the international nuclear watchdog last year. Unintended fluctuations in enrichment levels might have happened according to Iran.

Iran has been violating a 2015 nuclear agreement with international powers by openly enriching uranium to 60% purity for more than two years.

However since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew and reimposed severe sanctions on Iran in 2018 that agreement has been on the verge of failure. Israel had first opposed the nuclear agreement.