Israel has not ruled out an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in the coming months, despite US President Donald Trump informing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US is not yet ready to support such a move, according to an Israeli official and two other individuals familiar with the matter. Israeli officials have vowed to prevent Tehran from acquiring an atomic weapon and Netanyahu has insisted that any negotiations with Iran must lead to the complete dismantling of its nuclear program. In recent months, Israeli officials have presented the Trump administration with a range of options for attacks on Iranian facilities, including some with a timeline for late spring and summer, according to sources. The plans include a mix of air strikes and commando operations that could set back Tehran’s ability to make its nuclear program weapons-capable for months or even a year or more, according to sources. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Trump had informed Netanyahu at a meeting at the White House earlier this month that Washington would prioritize diplomatic talks with Tehran and was not ready to support a short-term strike against the country’s nuclear facilities. However, Israeli officials now believe that their military could instead carry out a limited strike against Iran that would require less support from the US. Such an attack would be significantly smaller than the original proposals made by Israel. It is unclear whether or when Israel would carry out such an attack. Such a move would likely anger Trump and could jeopardize broader US support for Israel. A high-ranking Iranian security official said that Tehran was aware of Israeli planning and that an attack would “trigger a hard and unyielding Iranian response.” “We have information from reliable sources that Israel is planning a major attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. This is due to dissatisfaction with ongoing diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear program and also due to Netanyahu’s need for a conflict as a means of political survival” the official told Reuters. Israeli officials have informed Washington in recent weeks that they do not believe the US talks with Iran should reach the stage of concluding an agreement without a guarantee that Tehran will not be able to build an atomic weapon. “This can be achieved through an agreement, but only if the agreement follows the Libyan model: you go in, blow up the facilities and completely dismantle the equipment under American supervision” said Netanyahu after his talks with Trump. Iran and the United States held a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long deadlock in their dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions – in the shadow of the threat by the US President to resort to military action in case diplomacy fails. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff negotiated indirectly through intermediaries from Oman, one week after a first round in Muscat, which both sides described as constructive. An Iranian official described Tehran’s negotiating position under the condition of anonymity, saying that Iran would never agree to abandon its centrifuges for uranium enrichment, fully halt enrichment, or reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium to the level agreed upon in the 2015 deal. Iran also refuses to negotiate over defense capabilities such as missiles.
A Bold Move to Dismantle Iran’s Program
