Likud’s ministers on Wednesday did not stop confirming whether Israel was behind an overnight attack in Syria, but said the incoming U.S. administration does not have to “appeal”, and they warned Tehran that the Jewish state would not accept its military presence in Syria or its development of nuclear weapons. .
In one of the strongest statements made by an Israeli official, Tzachi Hanegbi was at the Likud, who was believed to be a friend of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, threatening that Israel could attack Iran’s nuclear program. the return of the United States into the nuclear deal, as US President Joe. Biden has stated that he intends to do so.
“If the US government goes back to the nuclear deal – and that seems to be the stated policy as it is now – the practical result is that Israel will once again be alone against Iran, which will be too late. ‘a deal to get a green light from the world, including the United States, to continue their nuclear weapons program,’ “Hanegbi said in an interview with Kan News.
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“It simply came to our notice then. We have already done twice what needs to be done, in 1981 against Iraq ‘s nuclear program and in 2007 against Syria’ s nuclear program, ”he said, referring to airstrikes on the two countries’ nuclear reactors. sin.
When asked about profiteering that U.S. President Donald Trump could strike a major strike on Iran and its nuclear program before leaving office next week, Hanegbi said this was not expected.
“The [Israeli] is an assessment that nothing dramatic will happen during this week, ”he said.
The major airstrikes in eastern Syria targeted more than 15 Iranian-linked facilities and were the fourth reported attack by Israel against Iran’s targets in Syria in the past two and a half weeks. past, a significant increase from the normal rate of such strikes. Wednesday’s predawn attacks also hit a large number of targets in Syria, more than 15 with most accounts from the Syrian media.
A U.S. official said the strikes hit a series of warehouses near the Iraqi border that were being used in a pipeline to store and platform Iranian weapons. Syrian media outlets also said the targets were missiles imported into the country a few weeks ago.
“We do not acknowledge this or other strikes,” Hanegbi said. “Iranians want permission from Assad to work freely in Syria, in order to transform Hezbollah model [the Lebanon-based Iran-backed terror group]. All of this is to prevent us from working against its nuclear program. ”
Hanegbi also warned the incoming Biden administration against “appeasing” Iran.
“The most important thing is to convince the incoming American administration not to repeat the mistakes of the Obama administration – to attack the Iranians.” This only increased Iran’s aggression and challenge. They saw this as American weakness, ”said Hanegbi.
Minister Likud Yuval Steinitz, in an interview with Army Radio, said that Israel was engaged in “a major campaign against Iran and its efforts to acquire its own nuclear weapons and bases” [militarily] in Syria. “
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, left with Tzachi Hanegbi at Likud, right, and Yuval Steinitz, at Likud’s faction meeting at the Knesset, July 27, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
Former U.S. President Barack Obama, with U.S. President Joe Biden as his vice president, signed Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2015. The Trump administration pulled its out of the contract in 2018 and pressured Iran with economic sanctions and other measures.
Obama signed the agreement despite strong opposition from Israel, and had a rocky relationship with Jerusalem and Netanyahu, while the prime minister and Trump had been at a gray level on most policy issues. Middle East.
Biden is expected to take a more proactive approach to Iran and has said that if Iran returns to the terms of the nuclear deal, it will also return, removing damaged economic sanctions. Iran’s economy over the past two years.
The U.S. president has stated that he wants a broader compromise with Tehran if Washington returns to the treaty, especially over missiles and influence across the Middle East. Iran has said it could welcome the return of Americans to the agreement, but only after they lifted sanctions. He refused to compromise on other matters.
Iran and the Trump administration have engaged in an ongoing exchange in recent months as the Trump administration comes to an end with Iran marking the one-year anniversary of the assassination of the U.S. of its general Qassem Soleimani.
Back and forth there are threats, arms movements, legal action and the reduction of Iranian breaches of the nuclear deal.
The U.S. chief intelligence officer said the airstrips in Syria were made by Israel with information provided by the U.S., marking a rare incident of public cooperation between the two countries over the selection of targets in Syria. Syria.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives to speak at the National Press Club in Washington, on January 12, 2021. (Andrew Harnik / Pool / AFP)
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly criticized Iran over porting al-Qaeda on Wednesday.
Iran began enriching uranium to 20 percent last week, far beyond the threshold outlined in its famous 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and a short jump from the enrichment level to. needed to produce weapons.
Complicating Biden’s administrative plans to go back with Tehran were two high-profile murders this year in Iran that were attributed to Israel. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top Iranian nuclear scientist, was shot down outside Tehran in November when Iranian officials blamed Israel. In August, Israeli representatives killed al-Qaeda’s second leadership in Tehran at U.S. command, according to a report from the New York Times.
The overnight strikes in Syria targeted sites in the Boukamal and Deir Ezzor areas of eastern Syria, where there is a large presence of Iranian-backed militias, according to the official SANA news agency in Syria.
Although unseen, Israeli strikes on targets near the Syrian-Iraq border are uncommon, given the challenges of organizing such work far from Israel, which tends to account for the large number of targets hit in the raid.
But the most recent reported attacks were overwhelming, with unconfirmed reports saying 57 fighters were killed, according to AFP which would be the deadliest strikes since the conflict began in Syria.
The Israeli Defense Forces had no say in the late-night strikes, according to its policy of not confirming or denying their operations in Syria, except to those who were under attack for an attack. from the country.
The targeted area has been hit again by Israel in recent years as it is home to a number of bases used by Iranian-backed groups and is fundamental to a land corridor for Tehran that is Iran’s connection across Iraq and Syria through Lebanon, which Iran uses for smuggling in weapons and rockets, mainly to the Hezbollah terrorist group.
The IDF has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 against moves by Iran to establish a permanent military presence in the country and efforts to transport progressive, game-changing weapons to terrorist groups in the country. region, especially Hezbollah.