Israel is intensifying its campaign intended to demolish Iran’s nuclear, missile and drone programs, deploying more covert operations targeting a broader range of key targets, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday (Israel Expands Operations Against Iranian Nuclear, Military Assets). According to the report, this is the latest development in Israel’s strategy against Iran, dubbed by outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as the “Octopus Doctrine.”
The WSJ noted that Israel will increase its clandestine entries into Iranian territory, expanding its policy of targeting Islamic Republic agents and proxies outside Iran, especially in Syria.
The newspaper quoted Bennett’s address to a Knesset committee earlier this month, where he said, “Last year, the Israeli government took action against the terrorist octopus head, unlike in previous decades, when it took action only against its arms.” The PM added: “The days of immunity, in which Iran attacked Israel and spread terrorism through its proxy forces in the region but remained unharmed, are over.”
The WSJ quoted sources familiar with Israel’s campaign against Iran’s military capabilities who said last year Israel had intensified its efforts with small drone strikes that hit Iran’s nuclear facilities and its drone base.
Iran blamed Israel for the killing of Hassan Sayad Khodaei, a Revolutionary Guards commander, in Tehran. That was followed by the killings of several high-ranking individuals involved in Iran’s nuclear and military research programs across the country.
Well-informed sources told the WSJ that after years of focusing on its covert efforts on Iran’s nuclear program, Israel is now stepping up its campaign, as Iran has been making significant progress in enriching weapons-quality uranium. According to the report, Israel believes it can still thwart the program, since, as one source suggested, “Although Iran may have mastered the fuel cycle, they have not made any progress in developing the warhead.”
UN nuclear watchdog says Iran preparing to use advanced IR-6 centrifuges at underground Fordow site.
IAEA headquartersiStock
Iran is escalating its uranium enrichment further by preparing to use advanced IR-6 centrifuges at its underground Fordow site that can more easily switch between enrichment levels, Reuters reported on Monday, citing the newest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The move is the latest of several steps Iran had long threatened to take but held off carrying out until 30 of the 35 countries on the IAEA Board of Governors backed a resolution this month criticizing it for failing to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
IAEA inspectors verified on Saturday that Iran was ready to feed uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas, the material centrifuges enrich, into the second of two cascades, or clusters, of IR-6 centrifuges installed at Fordow, a site dug into mountain, the confidential IAEA report to member states, seen by Reuters, said.
Iran informed the IAEA on Monday that passivation of the cascade, a process that precedes enrichment and also involves feeding UF6 into the machines, had begun on Sunday.
Importantly, the 166-machine cascade is the only one to have so-called “modified sub-headers”, which make it easier to switch to enriching to other purity levels. Western diplomats have long pointed to that equipment as a source of concern since it could enable Iran to quickly enrich to higher levels.
Iran has also not told the agency clearly what purity the cascade will enrich to after passivation. Iran had previously informed the IAEA that the two IR-6 cascades could be used to enrich to 5% or 20% purity.
“The Agency has yet to receive clarification from Iran as to which mode of production it intends to implement for the aforementioned cascade, following the completion of passivation,” the report said, according to Reuters.
Iran, which had already been scaling down its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from it, warned following the IAEA resolution that it would respond in a “firm and proportionate” manner and that “the initiators are responsible for the consequences.”
Iran had ordered the removal of IAEA cameras installed under the 2015 deal and pressed ahead with the installation of IR-6 centrifuges at an underground plant at Natanz.
The latest IAEA report comes as talks on a return to the 2015 nuclear deal remain stalled.
An agreement was nearly reached before the talks stopped in March. US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley told lawmakers recently that the prospects for reaching a deal with Iran are “tenuous” at best.
Last week, the US sanctioned a network of Iranian petrochemical firms, as well as alleged front companies in China and the United Arab Emirates, accusing them of helping Tehran to circumvent sanctions.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi criticized the new US sanctions and said, “The world must give us the right not to trust the United States because they are violating their agreements.”
