Is An Attack on Iran Imminent? Rogue Nation is Close to Uranium Enrichment Level Required for Nuclear Weapon

By: Fern Sidman

In recent weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held five secret discussions on the Iranian issue, in which it was decided to significantly raise the level of Israeli preparation and readiness for an attack on the nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic, Channel 12 News reported on Tuesday, according to Israel National News.

According to the report, Israel’s top defense officials participated in the discussions, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, the head of the Mossad, the head of the National Security Council, the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Aharon Haliva, the head of the Operations Directorate, as well as the operational ranks of the relevant units in the IDF, INN reported.

The summaries of these meetings, from which messages were conveyed by Prime Minister Netanyahu to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and French President Emmanuel Macron, made it clear, according to the INN report, that if the world does not act against Iran, Israel will be forced to act and will not hesitate to do so.

The discussions were convened in light of reports that Iran has enriched uranium to a level of 84%, only 6% short of the enrichment level required for a nuclear bomb. On Sunday, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said it was in talks with Iran after the report surfaced, the Times of Israel reported. This means that Iran is just a small step away from the 90% enrichment level required to create weapons-grade material.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, denied the reports on Monday, telling the IRNA state news agency, “So far, we have not made any attempt to enrich above 60%. The presence of particles above 60% enrichment does not mean production with an enrichment above 60%, “ as was reported by the TOI.

Meanwhile, INN reported that Israel in recent days has conveyed messages to Hamas and Hezbollah, noting that the fact that there is an “explosive” political situation in Israel does not mean that Israel is not militarily prepared for any possibility – and will react disproportionately to any attempt to harm it.

The report, which was not attributed to any source, included few other details about the discussions, and may itself be designed to telegraph the seriousness of Israeli threats to resort to military action in order to shut down Iran’s suspected drive toward a nuclear weapon, which Netanyahu has described as an existential threat, as was reported by The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu on Tuesday night repeated his stance that the international community needed to back its promises to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions with serious threats to take military action or by actually putting bombers in the air, the TOI reported.

“The only thing that has ever stopped rogue nations from developing nuclear weapons is a credible military threat or a credible military action,” Netanyahu told a national security conference in Israel, as was reported by the TOI.  “A necessary condition and often a sufficient condition is credible military action. The longer you wait, the harder that becomes. We’ve waited very long.”

Netanyahu also offered examples of successful military strikes that have stopped countries from developing nuclear weapons. He asked “how do you stop a rogue nation from acquiring nuclear weapons?” The prime minister then cited Saddam Hussein’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons in Iraq and said that this effort was quashed by an Israeli military strike. Netanyahu then referenced Syria’s attempt to acquire nuclear weapons and that they were stopped once again by an Israeli strike. He also cited Muammar Gaddafi’s efforts to nuclearize Libya  and how that came to an abrupt halt by an American threat of a military attack.

While Netanyahu also tipped his hat to the imposition of crippling economic sanctions on Iran as a strong deterrent to nuclear weapons development, he said that they need to be coupled with a serious threat of an attack or an attack itself. He implied that the world is standing at a precipice in terms of Iranian nuclear enrichment and that an attack would not only be beneficial to Israel but to the United States and the rest of the free world.

Political experts have speculated that if the US would seriously consider an offensive strike on Iran, that would put “the fear of G-d” into the Chinese if they should go ahead with plans to directly attack Taiwan. The US has given its assurances to Taiwan that American support for their defense in the event of an attack by China would be forthcoming.

Gallant on Tuesday publicly declared that Israel would not allow the Islamic Republic to cross the “red line” and enrich uranium to 90%, the TOI reported.

“Israel is dealing with Syria, Hezbollah, Iran and Palestinian terror in a multi-front arena. The Iranian threat needs to be returned to the top of the global priority list,” he told a conference in Jerusalem, the report said.

“Iran is closer than ever to producing a nuclear weapon and has almost reached the red line. We will not allow that to happen — all the options are on the table. Our duty is to defend the State of Israel and the Jewish people,” Gallant said, as was reported by the TOI.

Netanyahu, like Gallant, also took aim at Hezbollah, warning that the terror group, as well as Gaza’s Hamas rulers, should not mistake Israel’s domestic political instability for military weakness, warning that the IDF would respond “disproportionately” if either group were to provoke the Jewish state.

The TOI also reported that Israel reportedly came close to carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on multiple occasions under previous Netanyahu governments.

Former prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak said that Netanyahu aborted plans in both 2010 and 2011 to strike Iran, having been dissuaded by the IDF chief of staff at the time and by ministerial colleagues, the TOI report said.

Echoing Netanyahu’s and Gallant’s proclamations on the Iranian threat was Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. JNS reported that on Tuesday he called on the United States to issue a credible military threat against Iran.

“Iran is very close to 90% enrichment of uranium. The United States must put a credible military threat on the table immediately,” said Cohen at an event in Jerusalem hosted by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, according to the JNS reported.  Cohen also slammed Iran for being the world’s “number one” financier of global terrorism.

JNS also reported that earlier this month, the IAEA chastised the Islamic Republic for modifying the connection between the two groups of high-tech machines at its Fordow plant. The change was discovered during an unannounced inspection on Jan. 21 at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), a location built into a mountain where inspectors are beefing up checks after Iran said it would drastically increase enrichment.

A diplomat cited in a Reuters report implied that the 84% enriched uranium was found at the same site as the reconfigured cascades, or clusters, of centrifuges.

The spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization on Monday described the accusation as “slanderous,” as was reported by JNS.

Prior to his visit to Israel earlier this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while Washington prefers a diplomatic path forward with Iran, all options remain on the table.

In an interview with Al Arabiya’s Nadia Bilbassy at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, the top American diplomat said Iran had turned its back on a diplomatic solution, according to the JNS report.

“Iran had an opportunity to get back into the 2015 nuclear deal at the end of this past summer,” Blinken said.

“Unfortunately, they rejected what was on the table and had been agreed to by everybody. Now our focus is on the many things that have happened since, including the horrific repression of the Iranian people on the streets of Iran, as young people, women in particular, have been standing up for their basic rights, and very important communities across Iranian society are doing the same thing and are being repressed violently by the regime,” he added, according to the JNS report.

When asked by Bilbassy whether the United States would pursue a military option if necessary, Blinken replied, “Everything is on the table.”