Israel ‘was poised to strike Iran before Trump announced talks’

The strike, which would have entailed a sustained bombing campaign, would be aimed at setting back Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon by at least a year.

Iranians rally against Israel in Tehran. Picture: AFP.

Israel was poised to conduct a major attack on Iranian nuclear facilities before President Trump chose to start negotiations with Tehran earlier this month, The New York Times has reported.

The strike would have entailed a sustained bombing campaign, with US assistance, and could have been launched next month. The goal, according to officials briefed on the plans, was to set back Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon by at least a year.

Israel was planning commando raids on targets in Iran as well, but preparations would have taken several months, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, wanted to carry out the attack as soon as possible, according to the report. Netanyahu’s office reiterated on Thursday that it would not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

It said: “As the prime minister has stated many times: Israel will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.”

“The prime minister has led countless overt and covert actions in the battle against Iran’s nuclear program, without which Iran would today possess a nuclear arsenal. These actions delayed Iran’s nuclear program by nearly a decade,” the statement added.

The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday (local time) that Israel has seriously considered attacking Iran’s nuclear program multiple times since October, following Iran’s own ballistic missile attack on Israel that month, and the success of an Israeli special forces raid on an underground Iranian missile factory in Syria in September.

The reports come after a build-up of US forces in the region, including aircraft carriers and B-2 stealth bombers, and the reinforcement of Israeli air defences as an apparent precaution against war with Iran.

Israeli officials were hopeful that the US, which under Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with military action, would go along with the plan. But the president ultimately decided to pursue negotiations after he was presented with an intelligence assessment that the military build-up could lead to a serious confrontation with Iran.

He announced the talks when Netanyahu visited the Oval Office earlier this month.

Israeli officials had argued that Iran was weaker than ever after their military devastated Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, which Iran had armed and used as a deterrent against Israel. Israeli air strikes last year had wiped out Iranian air defences, in retaliation for a missile and drone attack, and also damaged the country’s ability to manufacture rockets.

The negotiations were seen as a setback by Israeli officials who advocated military action, and now fear that the talks could lead to a new agreement that would allow Iran to keep its nuclear program if it allows more international oversight, similar to the one that Barack Obama had signed in 2015.

Trump had torpedoed that deal in 2018 during his first term, but his administration has sent mixed signals about what they would settle for in the negotiations. Steve Witkoff, his lead negotiator, has alternately said that Iran could not have a nuclear program – a view shared by Israel and rejected by Tehran – and that a compromise could be reached.

Benny Gantz, the former Israeli minister and opposition leader, said in response to The New York Times report that Israel “must and can strike Iran”.

But there are doubts on how effective a strike would be against the well-protected nuclear facilities that are scattered around the country, and what an Iranian retaliation might look like.

Iran has a major underground nuclear facility at Fordow, is building a new facility at Natanz and has other underground facilities that it has featured on videos.

Iran has insisted that its program is for peaceful purposes, but analysts say Tehran has enriched uranium to 60 per cent and could easily increase that to weapons-grade levels and build a bomb in a year.

On Wednesday, Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran was “not far” from building a bomb.

“It’s like a puzzle. They have the pieces, and one day they could eventually put them together,” Grossi told Le Monde.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, arrived in Moscow for a “pre-planned” visit on Thursday. Upon his arrival in the Russian capital, he said: “Our regular exchanges with Russia and China have allowed us to align our positions.”

The Kremlin said that Russia stood ready to do “everything” in its power to help resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.

The Times