Israel says it has "greatly accelerated" plans to attack Iran
The Israeli army chief of staff says his country's military has "greatly accelerated" plans to attack Iran.
In an interview with the Israeli website "Valanews" on the occasion of the Jewish New Year, published on Monday, September 5, Aviv Kochavi said that in view of the significant advances in Tehran's nuclear program, the Israeli army has "accelerated" plans to bomb Iran.
He clarified that the increase in the military budget, which was recently approved by the government, was requested with the aim of accelerating plans to attack Iran.
Last week, Naftali Bennett's government allocated large sums of money to increase the military budget as part of its two-year budget. The exact amount of the additional budget has not been announced, but Israeli media has put it at around another half a billion dollars.
Aviv Kochavi told Valanews that the army will continue to take measures to limit Iran's regional presence, especially in Syria, and is constantly monitoring the movements of Iran's regional allies. He mentioned Hezbollah and Hamas in this context.
The army's request for a budget increase of hundreds of millions of dollars in the final months of Benjamin Netanyahu's government was met with opposition from some Israeli politicians who considered it unnecessary. But most of those politicians have now provided the army with a budget exceeding the previous request as part of a coalition with Naftali Bennett's government.
Israel's military budget is one of the largest in the world, given its small population and the large share it receives from the country's financial resources.
US President Joe Biden, in a meeting with Naftali Bennett at the White House on September 25, approved equipping Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system with additional missiles worth $1 billion, saying he "totally, completely, completely" supports this.
The Biden administration's recent arms aid to the Israeli military was in addition to the $38 billion in US military aid to Israel over a ten-year period that was approved in Barack Obama's final weeks in office.
During Naftali Bennett’s trip to the United States two weeks ago, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Aviv Kochavi repeatedly stated that the discussion of attacking Iran to prevent its military nuclear capability was “serious.” Benny Gantz told foreign diplomats in Israel that Iran was only two months away from achieving the capability to have a nuclear bomb.
Ebrahim Raisi and officials in the new Iranian government have said that if the JCPOA is revived, Tehran will reverse steps taken in its nuclear program that have been a retreat from its commitments under the JCPOA. But there is no prospect of reviving the Vienna talks.
During his visit to the United States two weeks ago, the Israeli Prime Minister stated that the JCPOA had essentially lost its relevance and presented a plan to "contain Iran" without any connection to the JCPOA.
According to reports, the Bennett government's plan, titled "Gulf NATO" (Persian), with the participation of the Persian Gulf emirates and Jordan, has been presented to Joe Biden to confront Iran. The United States has not approved the plan, or at least has not publicly reacted to it.
Jordan and the Emirates have also not confirmed Israel's claim of readiness to participate in the "Iran containment" plan.
Many military experts believe that Israel, despite having a strong air force, is not capable of attacking Iran's nuclear sites alone and will not be able to withstand the consequences and Iran's inevitable response to such attacks.
Source: Radio Farda
