Tel Aviv. United States in a strong message to Israel has said – Stop all bragging about your actions against Iran, as this hampers our efforts to reach a new nuclear agreement with Tehran.
Israeli sources say that officials in the Biden administration have sent an angry message to Israel following what they claim is “too much talk” about the Israeli actions against Iran in all arenas.
Sources claim that “someone” in recent weeks systematically leaked details of the alleged Israeli actions against the nuclear facility in Natanz and attacks on Iranian ships.
Maj. General (Ret.) Amos Gilead said that according to his best knowledge there is no official exchange of accusation between Washington and Jerusalem. “The principle must be – when you have to take action do it effectively without talking about it,” Gilead added that an open dialogue between the US and Israel in the Iranian context is very important. Gilead was, among other things, the head of the IDF’s intelligence research division.
The full picture about the attack on the centrifuges facility in Natanz is not yet clear and there is according to the Israeli sources much “flares and chaff ” in the air. But reports from Iran confirm that the facility suffered heavy damage.
Israel took some measures to be ready for an Iranian retaliation but defense sources in Israel say that Iran may try and retaliate “in different parts of the world against Israeli related targets.”
The extremists in Iran call for an immediate and direct retaliation. In an editorial in the Kahan hard-liner newspaper, which was set up at the request of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and is reflecting the ideas of the conservative and extremist currently in the Iranian regime, there is a call for such an action.
“Unfortunately, the president, by announcing that Iran will install more advanced centrifuges in the damaged facility and that it will increase uranium enrichment to 60 per cent, has in fact cleared that Iran will not respond equitably to the attack at all,” the article said.
“The clear position of this article is that the proper response to the Natanz incident, from an eye-catching perspective and a policy of creating security deterrence, should be action against the Israeli nuclear facility in Dimona. This is because that no other action is of the same level as that of Natanz like incident.”
Israeli political sources said that “Biden’s people” sent a message to Israel, according to which chattering and bragging about actions that Israel is doing is dangerous, embarrassing and endangers the Americans in negotiations with Iran. As a result, officials in the US defense establishment are troubled by this incident and asked themselves what is behind it. They raise the possibility that this is a way to put pressure on the United States.
The Israeli political sources claim that after Israel understood that Washington is determined to achieve a new agreement with Tehran, the leaking of the alleged Israeli actions is a way of explaining that Israel will not be bound by any new agreement.
While still preparing the retaliation, Iran immediately reacted by taking steps in its nuclear facility.
Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said last week that Tehran has started to enrich uranium to a level of 60 per cent.
While 60 per cent is higher than any level of uranium Iran previously enriched, it is still lower than weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.
Iran so had been enriching up to 20 per cent. The nuclear agreement limited Iran’s enrichment to 3.67 per cent.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged never to allow Tehran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Tehran has maintained that its nuclear programme is peaceful and it does not aim to build a nuclear bomb.
In the shadow of tensions with Iran, the Israeli political-security cabinet convened in the afternoon of April 18 for the first discussion since February. Earlier in the day, Iranian Parliament Speaker Muhammad Bakr Klibaf said Iran had succeeded in enriching uranium to 60 per cent – as it had promised it would do in retaliation after an attack on the Natanz nuclear facility.
Israeli sources said that the continued political chaos in Israel, that may lead to fifth elections in two years, is used by the US to put more pressure on Israel to stop any leaking of alleged Israeli operations against Iran.
-The writer is an International Roving Correspondent of the publication
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
