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  6.  » Israel warns of ‘military option’ against Iran as Netanyahu embraces Trump

Nicholas Vinocur – Politico Feb 26, 2025

Israel is warning a “military option” could be required to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons and is looking to U.S. President Donald Trump for help in ramping up pressure on the Islamic Republic, according to Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

Speaking to POLITICO in Brussels, Sa’ar said time was running out as Iran had enriched enough uranium for a “couple of bombs” and was “playing with ways” to weaponize its enriched nuclear material — an outcome he said would have a hugely destabilizing impact on the Middle East.

“So we don’t have much time,” he said. While Israel still wants to pursue a diplomatic path, Sa’ar added that the chances of such an approach being successful were “not huge,” and that failure to stop Iran’s nuclear program would be a “catastrophe for the security of Israel.”

“I think that in order to stop a nuclear Iranian program before it will be weaponized, a reliable military option should be on the table,” he said, when asked about the possibility of strikes during the Trump presidency. Failure to do so would trigger a “nuclear race in the Middle East with Egypt, Saudis, Turkey,” he added.

Sa’ar’s comments coincide with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to “finish the job” of derailing Iran’s nuclear ambitions with Trump’s help, after the U.S. president strongly sided with Israel during his first weeks in office and raised the prospect of “clearing out” the Gaza Strip.

Trump has said he prefers to make a deal with Iran rather than “bombing the hell out of it,” but his top security adviser, Mike Waltz, stressed more recently that “all options” remain on the table and that Washington will be satisfied with nothing less than a total dismantling of Tehran’s nuclear program.

Adding to the urgency of addressing the Iran threat, Sa’ar said, was a trend by which Iranian weapons are being smuggled to the West Bank via the border with Jordan. “We are now confronting a huge attempt by Iran via money and weapons that are floating to what you call the West Bank,” he said, adding that the aim was to “inflame these territories.”

No thaw with Dublin

Continues …

Commentary – Feb 27, 2025

The question is: will Israel be able to persuade the U.S. into taking part in joint strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities? Although Prof. Mirandi explains why he doesn’t think the U.S. would invade Iran (below), we also don’t think that the U.S. would spearhead large-scale joint strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military installations.

First of all, Iran has just signed a mutual agreement with Moscow, which includes cooperation on defence. A U.S. strike on Iran would put Washington on the road to direct confrontation with Russia and that’s something that Trump would prefer to avoid.

However, that doesn’t mean that the U.S. would not supply Israel with the weapons, intelligence and support it would need to carry out such an attack. In fact, President Trump has just approved the sale of 1,800 MK-84s bunker buster munitions to Israel.

Weighing 2,000lbs each these weapons are designed to strike fortified subterranean targets, like Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities.

In other words Trump is supplying Israel with precisely the weapons it needs to carry out large-scale strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities. We know that the hawks in Netanyahu’s government are hell-bent on war with Iran and Trump is in the process of supplying them with all they need to accomplish that.

Then of course, once the dust has settled on the ruins of Israel or Iran or both, Trump will be able to turn around and say that he ”never knew” what Israel was planning. Ed.

Mohammad Marandi on will the US go to war with Iran?

Community Church of Boston – YouTube.com Feb 25, 2025


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