Israel is considering hitting Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities during the US presidential transition period, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
The report cited an Israeli official familiar with the thinking inside the Israeli security cabinet who said the handover period might provide Israel with a window to attack Iran’s nuclear program.
Realistically, Iran would likely need US support if it wanted to do significant damage to Iranian nuclear facilities that are buried deep underground. A US official speaking to Bloomberg ruled out the idea of President Biden ordering an attack on Iranian nuclear sites in cooperation with Israel, but the US is vowing to defend Israel if Iran responds to recent Israeli airstrikes that hit Iranian territory.
The fact that Israeli officials are discussing the idea of hitting Iran’s nuclear sites signals that they are looking for another escalation with Iran before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. During the last transition period in 2020, Israel carried out a covert attack inside Iran that killed Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a nuclear scientist.
The Israeli official speaking to Bloomberg said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered Iran’s nuclear program an “existential threat,” although there’s no evidence that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has decided to build a nuclear weapon, something that’s recently been affirmed by the CIA.
However, Israel’s aggression in the region has prompted calls inside Iran to reconsider the nuclear doctrine. Khamenei issued a fatwa in 2003 prohibiting the development of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
Iran is currently enriching some uranium at 60%, which is the highest level it has achieved but still lower than the 90% needed for weapons-grade uranium. Israeli aggression led to Iran increasing uranium enrichment to 60% as it took the step in response to a sabotage attack on its Natanz nuclear facility in April 2021. Before that, Iran took the step to increase uranium enrichment to 20% in response to the Israeli assassination of Fakhrizadeh.
The 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, limited Iran’s uranium enrichment to 3.67%. But Iran hasn’t been bound by the limitations for years since the Trump administration withdrew from the deal in 2018 at Israel’s urging.
