‘We should send rockets, not at each other, but rather to stars’: Musk amid Israel-Iran tensions

CALIFORNIA: Following the reports of Israeli strikes on Isfehan city in Central Iran, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in a veiled comment on Friday, has said that rockets should be sent to stars rather than at each other.

Israel launched missile strikes against Tehran during early hours on Friday morning (local time), ABC News reported citing a senior US official.

However, the official could not confirm whether Syria and Iraq sites were hit as well. The report came shortly after local sources reported blasts in Isfahan region in Central Iran.

Musk’s post on X comes right after the blasts were reported across Iran. “We should send rockets not at each other, but rather to the stars,” he said in his social media post. “Maybe world leaders should just email memes at each other and let the public vote on who wins”, Musk said, adding “I prefer that over war”.

We should send rockets not at each other, but rather to the stars pic.twitter.com/h4apedUrsU

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2024

Iran’s air defence systems were activated in several locations after multiple explosions were heard close to the airport and an army base in the Iranian city of Isfahan, state media reported early Friday morning.

The missile launches come after Iran launched an offensive on targets around Israel on Saturday last week, according to Israeli military authorities, in which the nation fired a barrage of over 300 unmanned drones and missiles.

Meanwhile, as per Syrian media reports on Friday morning, the Syrian Army’s locations in the southern Syrian governorates of As-Suwayda and Daraa were also the target of attacks. The attacks targeted Syrian military radar sites between Qarda and Izraa in Daraa, southern Syria, according to the local news outlet As-Suwayda24.

Residents of Mosul and Erbil in Iraq reported hearing the sounds of fighter jets as well on Friday during early morning hours, the Jerusalem Post reported.

According to officials, Israel and its allies, which include the US, intercepted all but a small number of them. Iran launched its attack over six months after terrorists from Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and the Israeli military started bombarding the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time that Musk has openly expressed his views on the ongoing war and the tense situation in the Middle East.

Earlier, the Tesla CEO had under fire for his endorsements of a virulently antisemitic trope on X, as well as the platform’s complete failure to crack down on rampant disinformation and hate speech amid the ongoing war.

The failure to combat antisemitism on the app and comments viewed as anti-Semitic, shared by Musk himself resulted in several advertisers like Apple and Disney cutting off their spending on the microblogging site.

However, he later visited Israel, where he met the country’s top leaders, including President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Musk had also announced that X would be donating all revenue from advertising and subscriptions “associated with the war in Gaza” to hospitals in Israel and the Red Cross/Crescent in Gaza. (ANI)