CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour stressed Tuesday that Iran does not want the conflict between it and Israel or the United States to escalate.

Amanpour made the statement while reporting on Iran’s rocket attack on Israel in retaliation for the country’s airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon last week.

“Nobody, nobody – neither the Lebanese nor the Iranians – want this to escalate further. “Iran does not want an Israeli or US war against it,” Amanpour told CNN anchor Dana Bash on Tuesday morning, suggesting that the current rocket fire was calculated to trigger a minimal response from Israeli forces.

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Correspondent Christiane Amanpour recently emphasized in a CNN report that Iran does not want the conflict with Israel to escalate. (PBS/Screenshot)

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said this barrage of hundreds of rockets was in retaliation for the killing of terror group leader Nasrallah in Beirut last week and the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

The military group warned in a statement carried by Iranian state media that if Israel responded to the rocket fire it would face “devastating attacks.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had vowed to strike back in retaliation for Nasrallah’s death, saying: “The martyr’s blood will not go unavenged.”

During her appearance on CNN, Amanpour reported that the Iranian leadership has tried to show restraint to avoid a larger war.

“It is incredibly important to be absolutely precise about what is going on. So far there is no evidence that anything has landed or been intercepted, according to our correspondents on the ground. And also the United States and Israel said they estimated that the targets would be three Israeli air bases and one intelligence base,” she began.

“That’s very important to keep in mind,” Amanpour said.

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Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts missiles, seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on October 1, 2024. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari confirmed on Tuesday that Israeli forces had conducted “quite a few interception attacks,” noting that they had “no knowledge of any casualties.” Nevertheless, he announced that there had been “some impact in the center and in areas in the south of the country.”

On Iran and Lebanon’s perspective on this conflict, Amanpour continued: “The Iranian foreign minister told me in New York during the United Nations that – and this happened again before Friday’s attack – they showed restraint and that Hezbollah showed restraint. “also, and that it wanted to, you know, de-escalate everything.”

The correspondent noted that before Nasrallah’s death, both countries felt they were “being trapped, and they are trying to resist the idea of ​​being drawn into this war.”

“Then there is the assassination of their client Hassan Nasrallah,” she said, adding: “Hezbollah is supposed to be Iran’s frontline force. Therefore, this reaction from Iran is more likely because it feels that it has been left with no other choice.”

Despite Amanpour’s argument that Iran and Lebanon do not want things to escalate, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan called the attack “a significant escalation by Iran, a significant event” in a White House briefing.

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