Top U.S. officials reportedly did not object to a new plan to attack Iran from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) when it was presented by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz last week.
According to the Jerusalem Post, “Gantz updated American officials that he has set a deadline for when the IDF will need to complete preparations for an attack against Iran.”
“The Americans did not voice opposition to the Israeli preparations when presented with the date by Gantz on Thursday, a senior diplomatic source said the following day,” the outlet added.
“There was no veto,” the source told the Jerusalem Post.
The news comes after Gantz warned that Iran was amassing forces “in order to attack countries and forces in the Middle East in general and Israel in particular.”
“We are preparing for any such attempt, and will do everything necessary to protect our citizens and our assets,” Gantz said. “In its aspirations to become a hegemon, Iran seeks to destroy all traces of freedom, human dignity and peace in the Middle East and beyond. The nuclear program is a means to its hegemonic goals.”
When discussing Iran and their efforts to advance their nuclear program last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, “We believe a diplomatic resolution offers the best path to avoiding a nuclear crisis. However, given the ongoing advances in Iran’s nuclear program, the President has asked his team to be prepared in the event that diplomacy fails and we must turn to other options, and that requires preparations.”
The Biden administration is still trying to return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also called the Iran nuclear deal, in which the United States would pay Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, to temporarily reduce their nuclear activity.
“A nuclear agreement with Iran is again on the table, but history has taught us that agreements like this with extremist regimes are worth as much as garlic peel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned earlier this year. “To our best friends I say – an agreement with Iran which paves its way to nuclear weapons that threaten us with destruction – an agreement like this will not bind us.”
