The US could join Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites, sources have told the newspaper
The transition team of US President-elect Donald Trump is considering options for targeting Iran, including a direct attack on its nuclear facilities, sources have told the Wall Street Journal on condition of anonymity.
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Trump is understood to have told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recent phone call that he does not want Iran to go nuclear on his watch. Tehran denies that it wants to achieve nuclear capability [...]
”Trump aides and confidants supporting military options for his second term said the main idea would be to support Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities like Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, and even potentially have the US participate in a joint operation,” the newspaper reported.
The Times of Israel reported this week that the Netanyahu government is preparing strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. The sites are highly fortified, so it’s not clear whether the Israeli military could inflict sufficient damage with the conventional weapons in its arsenal. The US could provide heavy bombers and bunker-buster bombs for such an operation.
Sure, things are going in the direction of Israel right now but declaring actual war with Iran is another thing. We're talking about one of the most advanced and strongest armed forces in the world here. Even with US backing it will not be a walk in the park for Israel and they know that. More than a year of internal conflict has drained the Israeli war fund and we see them sometimes struggle on their borders against the likes of Hezbollah and Yemen and on more than one occassion the Iron Dome failed to bring down all targets that were send to them. Doing an all out war against Iran would be extremely difficult for them.
Very difficult indeed, demonstrated by the war games in which the USA was defeated by Iran unless entirely scripted. And this was 22 years ago. Iran's military strength has increased significantly in that time.