After accusing UN inspectors of failing to challenge Tehran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to attack Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday and called a rare cabinet war rehearsal.
Netanyahu convenes Iran war drill: Israel has increased its threats to carry out preemptive military strikes if world diplomacy fails as a result of Iran has enriched enough uranium to 60% fissile purity for two nuclear bombs if refined further—something it denies wanting or intending. Israel has always argued that for diplomacy to be effective, Iran needs to be threatened with a real military threat.
Netanyahu, speaking from Israel’s subterranean command bunker at its military headquarters in Tel Aviv, stated in a video, “We commit ourselves to take action against Iran’s nuclear drive, missile attacks on Israel, and the possibility of these fronts merging.”
While accompanied by security cabinet ministers and defense commanders, Netanyahu stated that Israel’s leadership must “consider, if possible, ahead” of its critical decisions due to the likelihood of numerous fronts.
Netanyahu’s office released a video of the practice. The media coverage of the preparations seemed to diverge from Israel’s strike on an Iraqi nuclear facility in 1981 and a similar unannounced sortie in Syria in 2007.
Following a report last week by the UN watchdog that Iran had provided a satisfactory response on one case of suspect uranium particles and re-installed some monitoring equipment originally put in place under a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal, Netanyahu earlier leveled harsh criticism at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“Iran has been deceiving the International Atomic Energy Agency ever since. The agency’s submission to Iranian coercion is a blot on its reputation, Netanyahu said in televised remarks to his cabinet. According to him, the watchdog risked becoming too politicized and losing its importance to Iran.
The IAEA chose not to respond.
On Wednesday, the CIA announced that Iran had satisfactorily explained one of the three sites where uranium particles were found after years of research and little progress.
A senior diplomat in Vienna explains that the location of a former Soviet-run mine and laboratory might account for the particles, and the IAEA has no other concerns.
Netanyahu reportedly referred to this when he stated that Iran’s justifications were “technically impossible.”
However, the IAEA believed that Iran had tested explosives relevant to nuclear weapons at that site decades ago, as added by the Vienna-based diplomat.
Tehran increased uranium enrichment after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. However, according to Israeli and Western officials, within a few weeks, it could transition from enrichment at 60% fissile purity to 90% – weapons grade.
In a 2012 UN speech, Netanyahu identified 90% Iranian uranium enrichment as a “red line” that could justify preemptive military action.
However, military analysts disagree on whether Israel, with its sophisticated force believed to possess nuclear weapons, has the conventional strength to inflict permanent damage on Iranian locations that are far away and well-defended.
The domestic focus on Iran may relieve Netanyahu from the months-long controversy over his plans to reform Israel’s judiciary. However, public opinion surveys revealed that for Israelis, the high living expense outweighs both of these issues.