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Israel has reminded Iran that its “highly sensitive facilities” are “within reach of the long Israeli arm”, a senior diplomat has said.

The Israeli military have “left their calling card”, Sir Richard Dalton added.

But the UK’s former ambassador to Iran and Libya also told Sky News he wanted to “utter a word of caution”.

He commented: “Is it really over? Israel might have something else that it wants to do. 

“And there will be disappointment amongst the more hawkish in Israel that this slap on the wrist of Iran was not more serious.”

However, Sir Richard said he thought Israel had “shown much better judgement on this occasion than it did in launching this cycle of retaliation on the 1st of April with its reckless and unlawful attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus”.

Senior Iranian military commanders were killed in that strike – which was allegedly carried out by Israel.

Iran has said it launched missiles and drones towards Israel on Saturday in response to Israel’s alleged actions in the Syrian capital.

Regarding the apparent Israeli strike in Iran, Sir Richard said he hopes it was a “good omen for future relationships between Israel and its United States partner, that while emphasising the independence of their decision making, nevertheless, the Israeli war cabinet decided to heed the advice not to undertake significant escalation”.