On Friday morning, Israel launched its largest-ever attack on Iran, striking its nuclear and military facilities, killing three top generals and several senior nuclear scientists, and dragging the region and the world to the brink of a devastating new war. Tensions between Iran and Israel date back to the formation of the Islamic republic in 1979
and have escalated rapidly over the past year and a half. Still, attempts at diplomacy by the United States of America under President Donald Trump in recent weeks, coupled with the certainty of a major Iranian military response, had fuelled cautious optimism that Israel would refrain from crossing Tehran’s red lines by avoiding hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities. Those hopes have now been dashed. Even though Mr Trump and his administration insist that Israel acted on its own, Tehran has now said that it will not participate in the next round of talks with Washington on a nuclear deal which were scheduled in Oman on Sunday.
That Israel might launch strikes on Iran appeared imminent in recent days after the US — Israel’s closest ally — started moving troops out of the range of Iranian missiles and offered its diplomats in the region a chance to move out temporarily. Yet, the scale and the audacity of the Israeli attacks will be widely interpreted as not just aimed at Iran but at Mr Trump’s efforts to keep the US out of fresh wars. To be clear, Iran has substantially increased its uranium enrichment in recent years; on Monday, the UN’s nuclear watchdog had censured Tehran for its failure to meet commitments on safeguards at its facilities. Despite the accusations by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for more than two decades, Iran has repeatedly insisted that it has no plans to build nuclear weapons. Earlier this year, the US intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, had also affirmed that in Washington’s assessment, Tehran is not trying to build a nuclear bomb.
In other words, there is no evidence that Israel’s attack on Iran at this time had to do with any serious fears that Tehran was close to building a nuclear weapon. What the strikes have done, however, are potentially scuttle the prospects of a nuclear deal between Iran and the US. Mr Netanyahu’s continuing war in Gaza and his use of hunger and aid as weapons there have turned even many of its staunchest Western allies against Israel. Two ministers in his government have been sanctioned by multiple nations. He is under mounting pressure domestically as well. The Opposition attempted to dissolve Israel’s Parliament recently. The threat of a fresh conflict
may help him rally the Israeli public behind his government again and may distract Western governments that are increasingly critical of his actions in Gaza. But the recklessness of Israel’s strikes should unite the world in doing everything possible
to stop Mr Netanyahu from provoking a disastrous war with Iran. Enough
is enough.