Israeli Prime Minister Nik Tanyahu (L) and IDF Chief Kochavi make a statement to the press in Tel Aviv, Israel, Nov. 12, 2019.
Israel’s Chief of Staff Kochavi warned of a revised war plan against Iran, stressing that it would be a “mistake” for the U.S. to return to the nuclear deal. The Israeli military chief’s comments on U.S. policy are rare.
Central News Agency (CNA) reported that Aviv Kochavi said this in a speech at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies on the 26th. He noted that this was Israel’s response to Iran’s restart of its nuclear program in recent months.
Al Jazeera reported that Kochavi said, “Based on a basic analysis, I have instructed the IDF to prepare several operational plans in addition to the existing ones… Of course, it is up to the political leadership to decide whether to put them into practice, but they must be submitted for discussion. for discussion.”
He said, “A return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, or even a similar agreement with several modifications, would be bad and wrong from an operational and strategic standpoint.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump‘s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, in May 2018 was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Since Washington withdrew from the nuclear deal, Tehran has been gradually scaling back its commitments to the deal, including increasing stocks of low-purity enriched uranium, refining high-purity enriched uranium and installing advanced centrifuges banned by the deal.
Iran denies seeking to build a nuclear weapon. But Kochavi said Tehran’s related actions underscore that it may ultimately make a decision to build a nuclear weapon quickly.
Trita Parsi, deputy director of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington think tank, said Kerchawi’s remarks send a clear message to the Biden administration.
Biden believes it is in the national interest of the United States to rejoin the nuclear agreement,” Parsi said. For his part, a minister in Netanyahu’s cabinet has publicly stated that Israel will not hesitate to go to war if the U.S. returns to the nuclear deal. It’s quite serious to be so ugly up front.”
Parsi said that Israel and the U.S. relations have been strained in the past over their policies toward Iran, but it always takes a while before it comes to a very serious level, “This Time, by no means, it starts right away. Nitanyahu has already thrown the first punch.”
Before that, the new U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was still “a long way to go” before the United States made a decision on whether to return to the nuclear deal, and that it would be important to see what Tehran actually did to return to compliance.
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