Israel ready to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities ‘with or without’ US backing: Report
US intelligence estimates say Israel is considering attacking Iran’s nuclear sites and that the strikes could potentially occur this year
Israel is looking to “seize the moment” to carry out an attack against Iranian nuclear facilities if diplomatic efforts with Tehran fail – and is ready to act “with or without” the backing of the US, officials told the Washington Post.
“Israel wants to seize the moment … If Iran won’t agree to a Libya-style abandonment of its nuclear facilities, Israel is prepared to bomb those facilities – with or without US support. The Biden administration had weighed in its final days whether to support this Israeli ultimatum but decided against it. Now it’s at the top of Trump’s inbox,” the outlet cites US and Israeli officials as saying on 14 February.
The report adds that there are several options on the table, ranging from “gunpoint diplomacy” or a “coercive ultimatum” to “active military support.”
During their meetings last week, US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed “several possible levels of American backing, ranging from active military support for a kinetic strike – such as intelligence, refueling or other assistance – to more limited political backing for a coercive ultimatum,” according to the Washington Post.
The report adds that the US “has already provided Israel with bunker-busting munitions that could severely damage Iranian centrifuges and other uranium-enrichment equipment buried in a mountain fortress in Fordow, near Qom.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that US intelligence estimates say Israel is considering strikes on the Iranian nuclear program, which could potentially come this year.
President Trump has recently stated several times that he would prefer a nuclear deal with Iran rather than an attack on the country.
“Everyone thinks Israel, with our help or our approval, will go in and bomb the hell out of them. I would prefer that not happen. I’d much rather see a deal with Iran where we can do a deal – supervise, check it, inspect it and then blow it up or just make sure that there is no more nuclear [facilities],” Trump told Fox News this week.
At the same time, the president has reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on 13 February that his country will not negotiate under pressure or threats.
“Whoever wants to negotiate with us must stop anti-Iranian policies,” he asserted.
Trump withdrew from the 2015 US–Iranian nuclear deal in 2018 – during his first term – and restored harsh sanctions against Iran. In the summer of 2022, the US and Iran were close to reaching a deal, yet the potential agreement was thwarted by heavy Israeli pressure and the start of foreign-backed unrest and widescale protests in September of that year.
Tehran is subject to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, as well as a religious fatwa outlawing the development and use of any form of weapons of mass destruction. Former CIA director William Burns said last month that “we do not see any sign” that Iran is planning to weaponize its nuclear program.
According to CNN, however, Tehran has been working to reinforce its missile program after the Israeli strikes on Iran in October last year, which came as a response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israeli military sites early that month.