JERUSALEM, Israel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held five private discussions with defense officials in recent weeks concerning a possible Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to a report on Israel’s Channel 12.
The report comes as the Netanyahu government has publicly ramped up its warnings about the Tehran regime acquiring nuclear weapons.
The prime minister has reportedly made the decision to accelerate preparations in Israel for a strike.
Netanyahu addressed the Hartog National Security Conference in Tel Aviv Tuesday, following an international atomic monitoring group’s announcement that Iran had enriched its nuclear capacity to 84 percent, the highest level seen in Iran to date, and just short of the purity level needed to produce a nuclear bomb.
The prime minister told the conference, “The only thing that has credibly stopped rogue nations from developing nuclear weapons is a credible military threat or a credible military action,” and added, “You can couple that with crippling economic sanctions, but that’s not a sufficient condition. A necessary condition, and an often sufficient condition, is credible military action.”
Conference attendees included Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.
Channel 12 reported that in the private Iran discussions, Netanyahu met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi, and the heads of Mossad, the National Security Council and other IDF leaders.
Israel communicated the substance of the discussions to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and French President Emanuel Macron.
Media coverage of the intense political battle over judicial reform in Israel has overshadowed the Iran discussions.
Israel recently advised leaders of the terror group Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, that they would be making a mistake if they thought that the political protests inside Israel would affect the nation’s military deterrence.
During the security conference, Netanyahu repeated the warning he has sounded concerning Iran’s regime for the past 20 years: “I can tell you that I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. That is not merely an Israeli interest; it’s an American interest; it’s in the interest of the entire world.”
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