The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump rejected a plan by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a “major attack” on Iran before the US midterm congressional elections.
اضافة اعلان
The newspaper said Netanyahu is seeking to resume large-scale airstrikes on Iran and has already instructed the military to prepare plans for a “major attack.”
Citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the newspaper added that the Israeli military had prepared for several days of bombing, which was scheduled to begin on October 10.
The sources said the strikes would have targeted civilian infrastructure, including power plants, as well as nuclear facilities and targets linked to the Iranian regime.
They added that the planned attacks were intended to be more intense than the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran last February.
On February 28, Israel and the United States launched a war against Iran, killing thousands of people, according to Tehran. Iran responded with attacks on Israel and what it described as US military facilities in Arab countries.
Israel and its ally, Washington, accuse Tehran of maintaining nuclear and missile programmes that threaten Israel and regional countries friendly to the United States. Iran, however, says its nuclear programme is peaceful, that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, and that it poses no threat to other countries.
Israel, which occupies Palestine and territories in Lebanon and Syria, is the only country in the region known to possess a nuclear weapons arsenal. Its arsenal has not been officially declared and is not subject to monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
According to the sources, Trump rejected a resumption of military attacks before the US midterm congressional elections on November 3, indicating concerns that such action could negatively affect the Republicans’ electoral prospects.
According to the newspaper, Netanyahu appears to be seeking any possible gains at Iran’s expense that could bolster his chances in the general election scheduled for October 27. Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Opinion polls indicate that neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the Jewish opposition bloc is expected to secure a majority that would allow it to form a government. This raises the prospect of another election unless either bloc changes course and agrees to form an alliance with Palestinian parties inside Israel.
Possible airstrikes
According to one source, the possibility that Israel and Washington could resume airstrikes in the coming weeks “is not an unlikely scenario.”
The source added: “Either an agreement is reached or an attack is launched. Washington’s goal is to force Iran to accept US terms as part of an agreement concerning the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran’s nuclear programme, bringing the war to a complete end.”
Iran, meanwhile, has put forward seven conditions for an agreement with Washington, including ending the war on all fronts, releasing frozen Iranian funds, lifting the US naval blockade, and halting interference in Iran’s internal affairs.
On Monday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an unannounced visit to Israel, where he held talks with senior officials, including Netanyahu, according to an Israeli source.
The source said Israeli officials presented Hegseth with an updated list of targets in Iran based on new intelligence. The list included civilian infrastructure targets that had not been part of previous target lists.
The British newspaper quoted White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly as saying: “The United States will not launch any attack on Iran before the midterm elections.”
Kelly claimed that US efforts to blockade Iranian ports and facilitate Gulf oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz were “bearing fruit.”
Source: Agencies
