we are hearing these strikes are being down played by both sides, really, but iran had been vowing retaliation for any strikes inside iran. where does that leave us? >> reporter: ana, it leaves us with the strong impression that neither side is looking for escalation. we heard from the iranian president, he is a hard liner, one of the iranian officials who said that any israeli attack of any size would be met with massive and immediate retaliation and yet during this speech, he made no mention at all of that israeli strike. here in israel, the official line is they are neither confirming nor denying israeli involvement in this attack. we did not hear from prime minister benjamin netanyahu in any significant way. and, ana, this appears to be a public messaging strategy that is designed to give the iranians space to allow them to choose