Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi met this week in Washington with National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan and discussed with him the Iranian nuclear threat while US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is visiting several countries in the Middle East.
The US is tightening strategic and intelligence cooperation with its allies in the Middle East in light of Iran’s transformation into a nuclear threshold state and its approach to the possibility of enriching uranium to the level of 90 percent, which would allow it to produce a nuclear bomb.
Iran continues to deceive the world, the statement of Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA), regarding the understandings he reached in his meeting with Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi on the reactivation of the surveillance cameras in several Iranian facilities and the visit of the agency’s inspectors to 3 unknown sites, the Iranians rushed to publicly deny his statement, the Iranians have already promised things in the past and then gone back on the promises they made to the West.
Grossi said during his visit to Iran that any attack on the nuclear facilities in Iran is illegal, his words were intended to please the Iranian leadership, however, they are interpreted by the Iranians as weakness, Iran openly and directly calls for the destruction of Israel and the State of Israel has the right to self-defense, especially in view of Iran’s gallop towards the nuclear bomb.
Security officials in Israel say that Iran is deceiving the International Atomic Energy Agency, the fear in Israel is that Iran will announce in a short time that it has the first nuclear bomb and will present the world with a fait accompli and it will have to accept it.
The Iranian leadership is misleading the world because there is no change in its behavior, religious extremism is part of its DNA and it cannot change, it continues to dream of spreading the ideas of the Islamic revolution, of infeltrating into the Sunni Muslim countries of the Middle East and of destroying Israel.
In order to achieve these goals, Iran accelerates its progress to the nuclear bomb and continues to provide advanced weapons to its affiliates in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Gaza Strip.
According to intelligence sources in the West, the chances of returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement between the world powers and Iran are slim, mainly in view of its rapprochement with Russia and its military supply to Russia of missiles and drones for the war in Ukraine, as well as the suppression of human rights during the Hijab protest, however, the Western countries, especially the US do not want a military confrontation with Iran, the Iranians are not limited according to the 2015 nuclear agreement in the production of ballistic missiles or drones and they have already become a nuclear threshold state.
It is not impossible that the supreme leader Ali Khamenei will still want to return to the nuclear agreement, the head of the CIA William Burns said a few days ago that he estimates that Khamenei has not yet made the decision on the production of the nuclear bomb, it is possible that Khamenei will now want to return to the nuclear agreement in order to ease the sanctions imposed on his country and to receive about a trillion dollars as a result of returning to the nuclear agreement from 2015 and thereby also prevent a military attack by Israel on the nuclear facilities.
Punish, isolate and deter!
Iran has managed to create a very dangerous situation and its actions are causing the acceleration of the nuclear arms race in the region, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey already also want a nuclear bomb to maintain a military balance against Iran.
The Western countries should soon come to a decision on military action against the nuclear facilities in Iran in view of the behavior of the Iranian leadership, President Biden promised to prevent Iran from nuclear weapons but he is in favor of the political solution and not in favor of the military option.
Until this decision is made, the world should act on the principle that Iran must be punished, isolated politically and deterred by military threats.
Until the military strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities, the following steps can be taken.
- Imposing additional sanctions on Iran and increasing its economic isolation.
- Freezing Iran’s membership in international institutions.
- Preparing the global public opinion for the military option.
- Increasing the military training of the US Army with the IDF and the armies of Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates on scenarios of attacking the nuclear facilities in Iran.
- Supply of Boeing 46-KC planes, for refueling planes in the air, to the planes of the Israeli Air Force this year.
Taking these steps will serve the Biden administration, they will increase the pressure on Iran and in practice prevent Israel from unilaterally attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities surprisingly.
Iran is convinced that the US will not attack the nuclear facilities in Iran and will even prevent Israel from doing so, therefore the Biden administration must put on the table a reliable military option that will deter Iran from moving towards the nuclear bomb.
