Israel is preparing to quickly attack Iranʼs nuclear facilities. All because in recent days, Israeli intelligence has been expecting the failure of negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
This is reported by Axios.
IDF believes that the operational window for a successful strike may soon close, so if the talks fail, they will have to act quickly, the source told the publication. The source did not specify the reason why a later attack would be less effective.
Other sources have confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces is already conducting exercises and other measures in case of a possible strike on Iran, and earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly held a top-secret meeting with a group of ministers, intelligence officials and security officials on the subject.
"Bibi [Netanyahu] is waiting for the nuclear talks to break down and for Trump to be disappointed in the negotiations — then he can give it the green light," an Israeli source told Axios, using the prime ministerʼs nickname.
Donald Trumpʼs administration is concerned that the head of the Israeli government could act even without the presidentʼs approval, a US media representative told the media.
What preceded
The Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2015 by the US, UK, Russia, France, China, Germany and the EU. They agreed that the Iranian authorities would give up their nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the Iran nuclear deal and imposed new sanctions on the Iranian regime. Tehran resumed uranium production after Trump pulled out of the deal. Under Joe Biden’s presidency, Iran’s nuclear program “advanced significantly”, according to Axios.
The Biden administration has been conducting indirect talks with Iran to revive the Iran nuclear deal. Those efforts collapsed in late 2022 when the United States accused Iran of making “unfounded” demands related to an International Atomic Energy Agency investigation into unexplained traces of uranium found at undisclosed Iranian sites. In the months that followed, the Trump administration maintained that the Iran nuclear deal was “off the table”.
Last September, during the election campaign, Trump said he was open to a new nuclear deal with Iran. Trump noted that negotiations were needed in any case because of the threat posed by Iranʼs pursuit of nuclear weapons.
In early February, the US president signed a document that renews “maximum pressure” on Iran to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero and prevent the country from obtaining nuclear weapons. And on February 6, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on an international network that diverts revenues from the sale of Iranian oil to the needs of the Iranian military, bypassing existing restrictions. Since then, there have been several rounds of negotiations between the countries.
- In May, Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said Tehran was ready for a new nuclear deal with the United States in exchange for Washington lifting economic sanctions. The comments, according to journalists, were the clearest public indication of Iran’s willingness to make a deal — and they came from within the inner circle of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who makes the final decisions on national security matters.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.