Iran's attack on 13/14 April was...

[dead0man]

go

[ingemann]

It was meant as warning and Teheran very much hoped that their missiles wouldn’t accidental hit something and result in an escalation.

[CumbrianLefty]

Yes, it is clear that Iran primarily used this to "send a message".

[Antonio the Sixth]

Probably option 4, yeah

[dead0man]

it just seems like a lot of work for a warning.  Either way, it will be interesting when we find out what the beardos emotions were like after the smoke had cleared.

[It’s so Joever]

I am fairly confident the intended impact of the “attack” was purely to shore up some domestic support. Whether it did anything on that front at all is hard to say, but the government likely was under some pressure to make at least a token move so they did. Yeah they are an authoritarian state but public opinion still does matter, especially when the thing holding up your legitimacy is being the “protector of the Muslim World” in the eyes of the public. Of course I highly doubt Tehran wanted it to escalate beyond that.