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Israel is considering launching an attack on Iran‘s nuclear sites in revenge for its weekend assault as the US and UK scramble to put together a diplomatic response which could include reviving the deal to restrain Tehran from building a nuclear bomb.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s next military move against Iran may not come until later this month, according to senior Israeli officials.
But veterans of the country’s defence establishment have warned that it could aim to strike a decisive blow against Tehran’s ambition to build a nuclear weapon.
Asked whether Israel was considering attacking nuclear facilities in Iran, Zohar Palti – a former leader in the Mossad intelligence agency – told Sky News: “No doubt. Everything is on the table right now.”
Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of Israel’s armed forces, hinted at a delay in the response – telling troops: “We are enabling a home front policy to at least give citizens this Passover week to live almost like normal because we completely trust you and your readiness.”
British and American officials have been working on ways to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions without going to war, which could include a return to the deal which restricted Tehran from developing an atomic bomb until Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018.
Some key officials in the UK Government are understood to have spent half of their time or more working on how to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons over recent years.
A veteran of the Foreign Office told i: “I don’t think the world realises how advanced the Iran nuclear programme has got. The issue has long been how to bring Iran back to some form of a deal.”
They suggested Tehran could have been stepping up work on the nuclear programme while Western powers were focussed on Russia and China, saying: “When the world’s attention is elsewhere, they accelerate.”
A source close to the Biden administration added: “Iran has made it quite clear that it has no intention of attacking Israel again, unless Israel strikes back in response to last weekend. The administration believes a diplomatic route is by far the best route forward, and that both sides can be catered for.
“The president is doing everything he can to avert a war in the Middle East, and a new Iran nuclear deal is one way being considered to achieve that. It’s not the only strategy, but it’s on the table.”
But Israel has warned Western governments not to revive the Iran nuclear deal, warning that it amounts to “appeasement” which will embolden the Tehran regime to take further action against the Jewish state.
Mr Netanyahu’s spokesman David Mencer told a press briefing: “Simply imagine, what if one of these warheads which came towards us on Saturday night… what if just one of them had a nuclear warhead, the results would have been catastrophic.
“Which means that we can never, ever allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons power, it cannot be allowed to happen, and any deal, any deal whatsoever, which somehow seeks to appease Iran in any way, shape or form, it won’t work. We know from history that appeasement does not work. It doesn’t only make things worse, it actually emboldens the aggressor. And aggressors, unfortunately, need to be stood up to and not appeased.”
Lebanon has called on Israel to show restraint in its dealings with Iran – foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib said: “Any kind of revenge is going to end up with a bigger war, probably. And therefore Lebanon, Syria and Jordan may be in trouble.”
