Blinken says US not involved in Israeli strike on Iran, calls for calm

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the US played no role in an Israeli drone strike on Iran that was retaliation for last week’s Iranian strike on Israel.

Speaking at a news conference in Capri during aGroup of Seven (G7) ministerial meeting, Mr Blinken repeatedly declined to answer questions about the Israeli strike.

Instead, he repeated a statement indicating that the US was not involved.

“I’m not going to speak to that except to say that the United States has not been involved in any offensive operations,”  he said.

“What we’re focused on, what the G7 is focused on, and again, it’s reflected in our statement, and in our conversation, is our work to de-escalate tensions, to de-escalate from any potential conflicts,” he added.

The Israeli government has not, to date, made any public statement about what appeared to be a retaliatory strike on the Iranian city of Isfahan early Friday morning. The city hosts one of Iran’s major nuclear sites, but the International Atomic Energy Agency has said there was no damage to any part of any nuclear facility.

In Tehran, Iranian state media appeared to downplay the significance of the incident while indicating that the Iranian government won’t respond in kind.

Speaking at the same press conference alongside Mr Blinken, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the United States provided the information at a Friday morning session that was changed at the last minute to address the suspected attack.

Mr Tajani, who chaired the G7 ministerial meeting which took place ahead of this summer’s Group of Seven leaders’ summit, said Mr Blinken had told his colleagues that the US had been “informed at the last minute” by Israel about the drones.

“But there was no sharing of the