Israel is getting ready to quickly strike Iran if ongoing talks between the United States and the Islamic Republic over the latter’s nuclear program break down, Axios reported Wednesday, citing a pair of Israeli sources.
“Bibi is waiting for the nuclear talks to collapse and for the moment Trump will be disappointed about the negotiations and open to giving him the go-ahead,” said one of the sources, using Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname.
According to the sources, the Israeli intelligence community now thinks the nuclear talks could collapse soon, after previously believing an agreement was close.
One of the sources said the military believes the window to attack Iran may soon slam shut, requiring Israel to move fast if the negotiations do not pan out, without saying why the IDF reached that assessment.
The news site also said that both sources confirmed a CNN report that Israel is preparing for potential strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, while adding that any attack would require a weeklong campaign and not be a one-off. Conducting such an operation would also pose great risks to the Israeli forces, the report said.
“There was a lot of training and the US military sees everything and understands Israel is preparing,” one of the sources is quoted as saying.
A US source told Axios that Washington is concerned that Israel could go ahead with a strike without getting prior approval from US President Donald Trump.
In addition, other countries in the region are worried that an Israeli strike — which would likely provoke a war — could release radioactive material that would spread across the area.
A key point of contention in the nuclear talks is Iran’s uranium enrichment activities. Whereas Washington has increasingly stressed that in any deal Iran would not be permitted to enrich uranium, Tehran has vowed that it won’t give up its right to do so.
Iran and the United States have held four rounds of nuclear talks since April 12, the highest-level contact between them since Trump during his first term abandoned a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
The arch-foes will hold more negotiations on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in Rome later this week, Tehran and mediator Oman said Wednesday.
The talks aim for a new agreement that would curb Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief.
In its Tuesday report, a source familiar with the intelligence told CNN the likelihood of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility “has gone up significantly in recent months.”
The person added that the chance of a strike would be more likely if the US reached a deal with Iran that did not remove all of the country’s uranium, CNN said.
Trump’s administration has been conducting negotiations with Iran aimed at reaching a diplomatic deal over its nuclear program, and the CNN report quoted US officials as saying that an Israeli strike would mark a major break with Trump, who has repeatedly stressed his preference for a diplomatic resolution to the issue.
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