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United States President Donald Trump didn’t object when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him during his recent visit to Washington that Israel may strike Iran again if the Islamic Republic resumed work on its nuclear program, The Wall Street Journal reported on July 12.
The U.S. supported Israel’s 12-day attack on Iran last month, and even joined in by attacking three of the Islamic Republic’s key nuclear sites, Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, just two days before a ceasefire was announced on June 24.
According to the report, Trump told Netanyahu that he favors a diplomatic resolution and wants to use the threat of further attacks to coax Iran to sign a deal barring it from developing nuclear weapons.
The report said that Netanyahu could face pressure from Trump not to attack Iran in order to preserve diplomatic talks. It also quoted a senior Israeli official who said that Netanyahu wouldn’t necessarily ask for an explicit U.S. green light before attacking again.
The official added that Israel can prevent Iran from making a dash toward nuclear weapons in the short run, and also has intelligence on where Tehran could covertly try to resume its atomic program.
The last attack set back Iran’s nuclear program by one to two years, according to the U.S. The fate of the Islamic Republic’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium remains unclear, however.
Some of the uranium, enriched to 60 percent, is reported to be under the rubble in the sites of Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. Even if none of the uranium was removed from the sites before the attack, it can still be extracted.
While there is a general belief that 90 percent enriched uranium is strictly needed to manufacturer a nuclear weapon, the International Atomic Energy Agency actually considers highly enriched uranium, which is defined as uranium enriched to 20 percent or greater, as a “direct use” material, meaning it “can be used for the manufacture of nuclear explosive devices without transmutation or further enrichment.”
The Wall Street Journal indicates that Trump and Netanyahu have different points of view on how to proceed with Iran. However, the exact same story was promoted before Israel launched its surprise attack on Iran with full support from the U.S. on June 13.
Tehran should be very cautious, and even outright suspicious, of whatever comes out from the U.S., which is certainly not in disagreement with Israel.
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