The views of the Israeli chief of staff are rare and a clear warning to the Biden administration about its relationship with Iran.
The Israeli military is updating its operational plans against Iran and any return of the U.S. to the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran would be “wrong”, a senior general warned.
Israeli Lieutenant-General Amir Kohavi made the remarks Tuesday in a speech to the Tel Aviv University Institute of National Security Studies.
“The return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, or even though it looks like a number of developments, is bad and wrong from an operational and strategic perspective,” Kohavi said.
The comments were a sign of U.S. President Joe Biden walking cautiously in any diplomatic communication with Iran.
Such comments from the Israeli military chief of staff on American policy-making are very rare and are likely to have been preconceived by the Israeli government.
Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018 – a move that welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who criticized the relief of sanctions it offered and warned of the potential for nuclear weapons development Iron after its end.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that the United States was “far” from deciding whether to return to the nuclear deal with Iran and needed to see what Tehran had done to resume compliance with the historic agreement.
An Israeli pilot climbs into an Israeli F-15 jet during a training exercise [File: Amir Cohen/Reuters]‘On the table’
Since Washington withdrew from the deal, Iran has been gradually breaking its main frontiers, building up the stockpile of low-enriched uranium, enriching uranium to higher purity levels, and installing centrifuges in ways that are hindered by the cord.
Kohavi said that these actions by Iran, which denies seeking atomic weapons, have shown that they may eventually decide to push swiftly toward arms. build a nuclear plant.
“As a result of this fundamental analysis, I have instructed the Israeli Defense Forces to prepare a number of operational plans, in addition to those already in place,” Kohavi said.
“It will, of course, be up to the political leadership to decide on implementation, but those plans need to be on the table.”
Trita Parsi, an analyst from the Quincy Institute, said Kohavi ‘s comments were a clear message to Biden after Trump – who was a strong friend of Netanyahu – resigned last week.
“Even before Biden took the oath of office, Netanyahu’s government went after him vigorously and aggressively – they immediately took off the gloves – to try to pressure Biden not to go back to the nuclear deal. , “Parsi told Al Jazeera.
“One of Netanyahu’s ministers has said publicly that if the United States comes back to the nuclear deal – something Biden believes lies in the national interest of the U.S. – Israel would go to war.” This is very bad at a very early stage. “
He noted in the past that there had been tensions between Israel and the US over its policy in Iran, but it took time to come to an end.
“This time, surprisingly, it starts right away.” Netanyahu has thrown the first punch, “Parsi said.
Netanyahu had threatened possible Israeli strikes against Iran before they began. But an Israeli chief executive, who spoke to reporters in 2015 on an anonymous state, stressed differences in Israel over the issue by saying a deal had potential security benefits.