Bibi directs preemptive strike in Iran.
Israel attacked Iran early on Friday morning, targeting the capital Tehran and other parts of the country with multiple airstrikes in a dramatic escalation of its regional war. Explosions were reported in cities home to major sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program. Initial reports indicate that Israel may have targeted the homes of Iranian political and military officials, as well as figures related to its nuclear program. Iranian state TV reported that a number of senior officials were killed, including the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami.
The attacks targeted at least six military bases around Tehran, including the Iranian military complex Parchin, according to the New York Times. Broadcasting the aftermath of the attacks in Tehran, Iranian state television showed that two residential buildings had collapsed, killing and injuring many, including at least one child.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized the attack, named Operation Rising Lion, as a “pre-emptive strike,” before declaring a state of general emergency inside Israel in anticipation of a likely Iranian retaliation. In a speech delivered Thursday night, Netanyahu detailed a full-scale military operation targeting Iranian nuclear and missile infrastructure, claiming it was necessary to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons and vowing that the strikes would continue “for as many days as it takes.” Netanyahu claimed that the attacks managed to strike Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, Iranian nuclear scientists involved in weapons development, and Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Following the preemptive strike by the State of Israel against Iran, a missile and UAV (drone) attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate time frame," Katz also said in a statement. Israeli officials have indicated that the country could experience “a significant attack from the east,” in the coming hours, likely in the form of a retaliatory Iranian missile barrage. Israel has closed its airspace, and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport has stopped flights from coming in or out. The Tasnim news agency in Iran has reported that authorities suspended flights at the Imam Khomeini International Airport, which has not been struck or affected by the attacks.
The attacks come after the U.S. announced withdrawals of personnel from embassies and consulates in the Middle East and President Donald Trump hinted that an Israeli attack on Iran may be coming in the near future. Despite those preparations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that, “the United States was not involved in the strikes.” Yet, according to the Times of Israel, the Israeli military says it is coordinating its actions with the U.S. In his statement, Rubio had said that “Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense,” adding a warning to Iran that they “should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
Israel’s assault comes after talks between the U.S. and Iran stalled over new demands from the U.S. for a total dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program. Though U.S. officials have denied that they were involved in the current strikes, the operation now risks entangling the U.S. into a broader war, as Israel braces for likely Iranian retaliation while expanding its own campaign of attacks across Iran.
Although the stated goal of Israel’s operation is to set back the Iranian nuclear efforts, there are reasons to be skeptical about this objective. Long before the current wave of strikes, U.S. intelligence officials and other analysts had pointed to the limited ability of Israeli strikes to destroy or meaningfully set back Iran’s nuclear program. Unlike nuclear facilities that Israel has struck in the past in Iraq and Syria, the Iranian program is more advanced, fortified, and distributed across a far greater territory. Key Iranian nuclear facilities like Natanz and Fordow are also built under layers of fortified concrete and granite—in some cases literally built into mountains—rendering them impossible to destroy by any known conventional Israeli military capacity.
The likely inability of Israel to fully destroy the program, despite being able to strike at various targets inside Iran, has led some military experts to conclude that the real goal of any attack is simply to fire the starting gun for a larger regional war with no determined endpoint. Such a war would potentially drag the U.S. in as a participant, including to defend Israel from Iranian retaliation, even at a time when segments of the Trump administration and its domestic political base are expressing intense frustration over fighting continued conflicts in the Middle East.
“Both the Israeli and U.S. government, as well as our respective military and intelligence services, are fully aware that Israeli airstrikes on Iran are not going to successfully destroy the Iranian nuclear program. We are dealing with underground facilities dispersed over a large country, and human capital that knows how to rebuild things. At most, such attacks would set back progress for a period of months, or less than a year,” said Harrison Mann, a former U.S. army major and executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for the Middle East/Africa Regional Center. “The only thing that you can really achieve by trying to bomb Iranian nuclear sites is to provoke a reprisal by Iran that helps escalate the situation into a larger war and draws in the United States. That’s what any purported effort to bomb away the Iranian nuclear program is actually aiming at.”
Mann, who resigned from his post at the DIA last year in protest over U.S. policy in Gaza, added that an aerial campaign aimed at Iran’s nuclear program would also likely require ground troops to come and do the work of verifying whether the program had actually been destroyed. It would also push Iran to withdraw from its present commitment to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and develop a bomb, a step that Iranian officials have said in recent days is on the table in the event that they are attacked.
“Iran has never built a nuclear weapon. That is a choice that successive leadership in that country has made,” Mann said. “But the way to ensure that they do try to sprint to a nuclear weapon is to make them feel that they have no other choice.”
Source: DripsiteNews
The attacks targeted at least six military bases around Tehran, including the Iranian military complex Parchin, according to the New York Times. Broadcasting the aftermath of the attacks in Tehran, Iranian state television showed that two residential buildings had collapsed, killing and injuring many, including at least one child.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized the attack, named Operation Rising Lion, as a “pre-emptive strike,” before declaring a state of general emergency inside Israel in anticipation of a likely Iranian retaliation. In a speech delivered Thursday night, Netanyahu detailed a full-scale military operation targeting Iranian nuclear and missile infrastructure, claiming it was necessary to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons and vowing that the strikes would continue “for as many days as it takes.” Netanyahu claimed that the attacks managed to strike Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, Iranian nuclear scientists involved in weapons development, and Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Following the preemptive strike by the State of Israel against Iran, a missile and UAV (drone) attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate time frame," Katz also said in a statement. Israeli officials have indicated that the country could experience “a significant attack from the east,” in the coming hours, likely in the form of a retaliatory Iranian missile barrage. Israel has closed its airspace, and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport has stopped flights from coming in or out. The Tasnim news agency in Iran has reported that authorities suspended flights at the Imam Khomeini International Airport, which has not been struck or affected by the attacks.
The attacks come after the U.S. announced withdrawals of personnel from embassies and consulates in the Middle East and President Donald Trump hinted that an Israeli attack on Iran may be coming in the near future. Despite those preparations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that, “the United States was not involved in the strikes.” Yet, according to the Times of Israel, the Israeli military says it is coordinating its actions with the U.S. In his statement, Rubio had said that “Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense,” adding a warning to Iran that they “should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
Israel’s assault comes after talks between the U.S. and Iran stalled over new demands from the U.S. for a total dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program. Though U.S. officials have denied that they were involved in the current strikes, the operation now risks entangling the U.S. into a broader war, as Israel braces for likely Iranian retaliation while expanding its own campaign of attacks across Iran.
Although the stated goal of Israel’s operation is to set back the Iranian nuclear efforts, there are reasons to be skeptical about this objective. Long before the current wave of strikes, U.S. intelligence officials and other analysts had pointed to the limited ability of Israeli strikes to destroy or meaningfully set back Iran’s nuclear program. Unlike nuclear facilities that Israel has struck in the past in Iraq and Syria, the Iranian program is more advanced, fortified, and distributed across a far greater territory. Key Iranian nuclear facilities like Natanz and Fordow are also built under layers of fortified concrete and granite—in some cases literally built into mountains—rendering them impossible to destroy by any known conventional Israeli military capacity.
The likely inability of Israel to fully destroy the program, despite being able to strike at various targets inside Iran, has led some military experts to conclude that the real goal of any attack is simply to fire the starting gun for a larger regional war with no determined endpoint. Such a war would potentially drag the U.S. in as a participant, including to defend Israel from Iranian retaliation, even at a time when segments of the Trump administration and its domestic political base are expressing intense frustration over fighting continued conflicts in the Middle East.
“Both the Israeli and U.S. government, as well as our respective military and intelligence services, are fully aware that Israeli airstrikes on Iran are not going to successfully destroy the Iranian nuclear program. We are dealing with underground facilities dispersed over a large country, and human capital that knows how to rebuild things. At most, such attacks would set back progress for a period of months, or less than a year,” said Harrison Mann, a former U.S. army major and executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for the Middle East/Africa Regional Center. “The only thing that you can really achieve by trying to bomb Iranian nuclear sites is to provoke a reprisal by Iran that helps escalate the situation into a larger war and draws in the United States. That’s what any purported effort to bomb away the Iranian nuclear program is actually aiming at.”
Mann, who resigned from his post at the DIA last year in protest over U.S. policy in Gaza, added that an aerial campaign aimed at Iran’s nuclear program would also likely require ground troops to come and do the work of verifying whether the program had actually been destroyed. It would also push Iran to withdraw from its present commitment to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and develop a bomb, a step that Iranian officials have said in recent days is on the table in the event that they are attacked.
“Iran has never built a nuclear weapon. That is a choice that successive leadership in that country has made,” Mann said. “But the way to ensure that they do try to sprint to a nuclear weapon is to make them feel that they have no other choice.”
Source: DripsiteNews
