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Tel Aviv: The Israel Defense Force is planning an attack on Iran’s nuclear program, Israel Hume reported Thursday in a front-page article.
The newspaper said that IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi has sought three alternative proposals to put Tehran’s program on track, without elaborating on them. It only indicated a bid that is a military strike, noting that such a plan would require a significant budgetary stimulus for the Israeli military.
Iran resumed enriched uranium by 20 percent last week, well exceeding the limits set in its 2015 milestone nuclear deal with world powers and a small technical leap from the 90% enrichment needed for weapons production.
The Israeli Hayam report comes a day after Likud minister Tzachi Hengbi, who is believed to be an ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, threatened that if the US re-enacted the nuclear deal, Israel would end up with Iran’s nuclear To attack the program, as he has indicated.
“If the United States government joins the nuclear deal – and this is the policy stated so far – the practical result will be that Israel will again be the only one against Iran, which will get the green light by the end of the deal in the United States. Including the world, to continue with its nuclear weapons program, ”Hanegi said in an interview with Cannes News.
“Of course, we will not allow it. We have already done twice as much work in 2007, against the Iraqi nuclear program and in 2007 against the Syrian nuclear program, ”he said, referring to the airstrikes on the nuclear reactors of those two countries.
Former US President Barack Obama signed the Iranian nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, with US President-Elect Joe Biden coming in as his vice-president. The Trump administration withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and pressured Iran with economic sanctions and other measures.
Obama signed the deal despite fierce opposition from Israel and had a rocky relationship with Jerusalem and Netanyahu. The Premier and Trump have been in lockstep on most Middle East policy issues.
Biden is expected to adopt a more concrete approach to Iran. If Iran returns to the terms of the nuclear deal, it will also remove the economic sanctions that have wreaked havoc on the Iranian economy over the past two years.
The US presidential-election has indicated that it wants to negotiate with Tehran more widely if Washington returns to the pact, particularly its missiles and influence in the Middle East. Iran has said that it can welcome the Americans’ return to the agreement, but only after lifting the sanctions. It has rejected talks on other issues.
Iran and the Trump administration have engaged in ongoing exchanges in recent months as the Trump administration draws to a close. Iran marks the first anniversary of the US assassination of its general Qassem Soleimani.
Front and back threats, military maneuvers, legal actions, and Iranian violations of the nuclear deal are included.
Further complicating the Biden administration’s plans to reintegrate with Tehran, Iran had two high-profile killings this year attributed to Israel. Top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsin Fakhrizade was blamed on Israel by a hit Iranian authorities outside Tehran in November. In August, Israeli agents killed a second al-Qaeda command in Tehran at the behest of the US, according to a New York Times report.