Previous damage to Iran’s air defenses, and Israel’s military superiority, helped in the airstrikes that Israel launched against the country, analysts said.

Iran had suffered serious damage to its air defenses in previous air strikes, and shoring up those systems was not something that could be accomplished quickly, said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“It’s a big country with masses of targets to protect against a very advanced opponent,” Knights said. “They just don’t have good enough air defenses to keep the Israelis out, obviously.”

Although U.S. officials have stressed that the country played no role in Israel’s attacks this morning, Iran’s foreign minister says the American government is also to blame.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the Israeli attack violated the United Nations charter and that Iran has a legal right to respond.

“The Iranian armed forces will defend the country decisively and without hesitation, using whatever methods they consider necessary,” he said, according to Iran state media FARS.

“​The aggressive actions of the Zionist regime against Iran could not have happened without the coordination and approval of the United States,” he said. “Therefore, the American government, as the main supporter of this regime, is also responsible for the dangerous consequences of these actions.”

The chief of the Iran Armed Forces, the country’s most senior military official, was killed in Israel’s strikes today, according to Iranian state television.

Mohammad Hossein Bagheri’s death was reported on multiple Iranian state media outlets, including Tasnim, Fars and Raja News.

State media previously reported that the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Hossein Salami, and Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, a top official in the IRGC, were also killed in the morning strikes.

State media reported that in the wake of those deaths, Iran’s supreme leader named Habibollah Sayyari as the new chief of armed forces and former Quds force commander Ahmad Vahidi as new IRGC commander in chief.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres “condemns any military escalation in the Middle East” and called for restraint to avoid a deeper conflict, his spokesperson said.

“He is particularly concerned by Israeli attacks on nuclear installations in Iran while talks between Iran and the United States on the status of Iran’s nuclear program are underway,” the spokesperson said in a statement.