New images shared with The Economist show how a swap helped calm a crisis
When iran and Israel exchanged drone and missile strikes earlier this month, the world was braced for a fully-fledged war in the Middle East. In the end both sides, having violently made their point, let matters rest. New satellite images now show how Iran saved face and backed down: it simply swapped one destroyed air-defence radar for a fresh one.
On April 19th, in response to an Iranian barrage days earlier, Israeli jets are thought to have fired several air-launched ballistic missiles towards an air base near the Natanz nuclear complex south of Tehran. The site has been key to Iran’s nuclear programme since it was publicly exposed 22 years ago and is heavily defended with its Russian-made s-300 air-defence system.