Amid fears Iran may develop nukes, Israel draws plans to strike nuclear facilities: Report

Amid fears that Iran may decide to develop nuclear weapons in the wake of latest developments in the region, Iran has started drawing plans to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, according to a report.

Following the collapse of the Assad dynasty, which had ruled Syria for 53 years, Iran has lost its strategic depth in West Asia. As its sway via its proxy Hezbollah has already been battered in Lebanon, and Iran itself stands battered from two rounds of aerial battles with Israel, some observers now believe that Iran may decide to develop nuclear weapons as the ultimate deterrence against Israel in the region.

As the Iranian nuclear weapon is an existential threat for Israel, the nation’s leaders have repeatedly pledged to not allow for the development of such a weapon.

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Amid such concerns, The Times of Israel has reported military officials as saying that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) is continuing its readiness and preparations for potential attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The newspaper further reported that the military now sees an opportunity for pre-emptive strikes to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities as Iran as well as allies in the region have been considerably weakened from a year of war and fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

The view within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is that Iran may push ahead further with the nuclear weapons programme as Iran is scrambling to rebuilt deterrence battered over the bast year, according to the newspaper.

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Iran formally suspended the nuclear weapons programme in 2003. In 2015, Iran and Western countries, including the United States, reached a landmark deal named ‘Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)’ that lifted sanctions on Iran in lieu of capping of civilian nuclear programme and monitoring of the programme via the Internationaal Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In 2018, former President Donald Trump suspended the treaty and Iran responded with ramping up enrichment of nuclear fuel.

Currently, Iran has enriched the nuclear fuel to near-weapons level. The New York Times has reported that Iran can make enough weapons-grade nuclear fuel for four weapons in a matter of weeks or days and then it would take another 12-18 months to make warheads.

Even though US intelligence assessment says that Iran has near-weapons grade nuclear fuel and it can develop a weapon in a matter of months if the go-ahead comes from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, it maintains that such a go-ahead has not yet come and the manufacturing of a nuclear weapon has not yet started. Moreover, Iran’s capabilities to make a nuclear weapon have also suffered in the yearlong conflict with Israel.

In October, when Israel conducted airstrikes across Iran in response to Iranian attack earlier that month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a wave of airstrikes destroyed “specific component” of the Iranian nuclear programme.

While Netanyahu did not give any specifics, he said that “we’ve delayed” Iran’s pathway to developing a nuclear weapon, but cautioned that the pathway has not been blocked. He further said that Iran has “advanced its enrichment" and “it still has a long way to go in other areas”.

Axios reported that Israel attacked the Taleghan 2 facility in the Parchin military complex where it destroyed sophisticated equipment critical to the production of a nuclear weapon. It said that the equipment had been safely stored at the facility since before 2003 when Iran had not yet suspended nuclear weapons programme. Officials were quoted as saying that the equipment destroyed is a must to make a nuclear weapon.