Israeli Defense Officials Cast Doubt on Threat to Attack Iran

Israeli Defense Officials Cast Doubt on Threat to Attack Iran

Israel has threatened military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear program if need be. But defense officials say Israel does not have the ability, at least not anytime soon.

New York Times-Dec 18th 2021

By Ronen Bergman and Patrick Kingsley

TEL AVIV — With diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program teetering, Israel’s defense minister has ordered his forces to prepare a military option, warning the world that Israel would take matters into its own hands if a new nuclear agreement did not sufficiently constrain Iran.

But several current and former senior Israeli military officials and experts say that Israel lacks the ability to pull off an assault that could destroy, or even significantly delay, Iran’s nuclear program, at least not anytime soon. One current high-ranking security official said it would take at least two years to prepare an attack that could cause significant damage to Iran’s nuclear project.

A smaller-scale strike, damaging parts of the program without ending it entirely, would be feasible sooner, experts and officials say. But a wider effort to destroy the dozens of nuclear sites in distant parts of Iran — the kind of attack Israeli officials have threatened — would be beyond the current resources of the Israeli armed forces.

“In the world we live in, the only air force that can maintain a campaign is the U.S. Air Force,” he said.

The recent discussion of a military attack on Iran is part of an Israeli pressure campaign to make sure that the countries negotiating with Iran in Vienna do not agree to what Israeli officials consider “a bad deal,” one that in their view would not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/18/world/middleeast/israel-iran-nuclear-attack.html