Israel poised to revive old plan against Iran's nuclear threat

The British weekly "The Economist" warns that Israel may activate a 20-year-old plan to attack Iran's nuclear installations. As a pretext, it may use the fact that Iranian missiles fired upon it. Another contributing factor is the weakening of Hamas and Hezbollah, who are considered Tehran's "subcontractors."

It cannot be ruled out that the September 27 killing of Nasrallah and a high-ranking Iranian general was a provocation intended to draw Tehran into a "strategic trap," the weekly observed. Israel is likely taking into account the fact that three days after Iran's April missile attack, its forces destroyed Iran's most important radar, a key element of its air defence, which exposed weaknesses in Tehran's defensive strategy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly tried to convince generals of the need to attack Iran's nuclear installations, the weekly recalled. On the other hand, according to "The Economist," citing sources within the Iranian government, the weakening of Hezbollah and the "fragmentation of Hamas" by Israeli forces might prompt Tehran to accelerate its nuclear weapons development.

Meanwhile, Israeli sources admitted in a conversation with the weekly that it might already be too late to try to destroy Iran's nuclear program, as the installations are hidden too deep underground, and the know-how is too widespread among Iranian scientists and specialists.

On September 27, Bronwen Maddox, director of the British think tank Chatham House, wrote that a confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah could be a prelude to an attack on Iran's nuclear installations, and Israeli authorities have repeatedly appealed to the US to dismantle these facilities or assist in such an operation.

Some analysts fear that the real reason Israel is striving at all costs to weaken an organization that is Iran's client and supporter is to create conditions for an attack on Iran's nuclear installations, Maddox emphasized.

Hezbollah, a Shia party in Lebanon and at the same time a terrorist organization, is financed, trained, and supported by Tehran, for which it constitutes an important link in the "axis of resistance," a network allowing significant influence over the entire region. In conflicts with Israel, Hezbollah plays the role of Iran's "subcontractor."

Its systematic rocket attacks on the Jewish state after the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip forced over 65,000 people living in northern Israel to evacuate. The government officially justifies the invasion of Lebanon, which began on Monday, with the necessity of creating safe conditions for the return of these people to their homes.