Israel’s military chief on Tuesday warned President Joe Biden against reentering the 2015 nuclear deal, even with modified terms, and added he had ordered his forces to lay the groundwork for strikes against Iran.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi responded by dismissing the remarks made by Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi as psychological warfare.
“They talk more and seek psychological warfare, and they have virtually no plan, no ability, and no capability to do so,” Vaezi said.
Addressing Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies Tuesday night, Kohavi warned: “A return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, or even if it is a similar accord with several improvements, is a bad thing and it is not the right thing to do from an operational and strategic point of view.”
He added rejoining the deal would likely trigger a “nuclear arms race” in the Middle East with other countries, like Saudi Arabia, jostling for the bomb to maintain the balance of power.
“Iran can decide that it wants to advance to a bomb, either covertly or in a provocative way. In light of this basic analysis, I have ordered the IDF to prepare a number of operational plans, in addition to the existing ones. We are studying these plans and we will develop them over the next year,” he went on.
“The government will of course be the one to decide if they should be used. But these plans must be on the table, in existence and trained for.”
Earlier this month, Iran announced it was enriching uranium at 20 percent purity.
Once 20 percent purity is reached, it is a short technical step for centrifuges to obtain weapons-grade 90 percent enrichment or even higher.
According to Kohavi, the news means Iran could be “months, maybe even weeks” from a nuclear bomb.
“No one has any doubt. Iran hopes, wants, identified and built the capabilities necessary to be a military nuclear power. And maybe even use them when it decides it wants to,” Kohavi said.
“There needs to be serious effort so that by the end, there won’t not only not be a bomb but there won’t be an ability to rush to a bomb,” he said.
“The Iran of today is not the Iran of 2015 when the deal was signed. Iran now is under enormous pressure — financial pressure, massive inflation, bitterness and unrest in the population, whose salaries have tanked — because of the American sanctions. These pressures must continue. No matter what happens. Anything that releases that pressure gives them oxygen, gives them air and will allow them to continue to violate the current agreement,” Kohavi said.
According to Israeli media, the head of the Mossad spy agency Yossi Cohen is slated to travel to the U.S. to meet with Biden and outline Israel’s demands for a future Iran deal, which would include curtailing its ballistic missile program and its backing of terror proxies like Hezbollah.
Iranian media cited Vaezi as saying that the Biden administration would not be as accommodating to Israeli demands as the Trump administration was.
“Of course, some officials of the Zionist regime think that whatever they say, Washington will accept it,” Vaezi said.
He charged former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and special adviser Jared Kushner of being a “Zionist agent in Washington.”
“But I think the new US administration, like other countries, has its independence,” Vaezi said.
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