Allies of opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu say the presumed next prime minister will order attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities if the US fails to secure a new nuclear deal with Tehran and does not take action on its own. He said he believed
On Friday’s Channel 12 news, Tzachi Hanegbi said that in such a situation, Netanyahu “would, in my assessment, act to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
Hanegbi, a long-time Likud MK former minister with no chance of joining the next Knesset (after casting 46 votes for the party’s candidate in the primary elections), has vowed to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. threatened a potential Israeli attack in the past. weapon.
Hanegbi said on Friday that the Iranian threat was “a fire that has been burning inside him for more than 25 years”. He assessed that without action, “Israel will face a nuclear-armed regime for the first time,” and that Netanyahu “will not make peace with nuclear-armed Iran.”
Asked if Netanyahu had actually told him about such a plan, Hanegbi said:
In January 2021, Hanegbi warned that Israel could attack Iran’s nuclear program if the US rejoined the nuclear deal.
“The actual result will be Israel fighting alone against Iran again. Iran will receive the go-ahead from the world, including the United States, to continue its nuclear weapons program by the end of the deal.” Said Hanegubi in an interview with Seki News at the time. “Of course I won’t allow this.”
In February of that year, Hanegbi said the US would never attack Iran’s nuclear program and that Israel may have to act alone.
Hanegbi has served in many ministries in the Likud-led government in the past. Among them are regional cooperation, agriculture, public security, transportation, justice and the environment. He has yet to indicate his future plans after his expected resignation from the Knesset.
The Israeli Air Force has long prepared for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but the ability to single-handedly neutralize the Islamic Republic’s well-protected facilities is not an option. It is unknown whether there is
The IAF has carried out strikes in Iran to prepare a credible military threat to Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
An F-35 jet pilots at a graduation ceremony for pilots who have completed an IAF flight course at Hatzerim Air Force Base in the Negev Desert on December 26, 2018. (Aharon Krohn/Flash90/File)
After the US-Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2015, Israel put the issue of military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program on the back burner, allowing the IDF to invest its resources elsewhere. The issue has taken on new significance for Israel following its abandonment of the nuclear deal in 2011 and its subsequent violation by Iran.
Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi said earlier this year that the military “continues to vigorously prepare for an attack on Iran and must be ready for every deployment and every scenario.”
In addition to having to find ways to attack deeply buried Iranian installations that require specialized ammunition and tactics, the Israeli Air Force needs increasingly sophisticated Iranian forces to carry out such attacks. The military must also prepare for possible reprisals against Israel by Iran and its allies.
U.S. President Joe Biden made returning to the nuclear deal a priority when he took office, and both sides briefly appeared to be on the brink of a deal, but negotiations have stalled amid Iran’s new demands, US officials recently said a deal is unlikely in the near future.
