The US has obtained new intelligence that suggests Israel is preparing to launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, CNN reported on Tuesday.
The report cited officials who said it was unclear if Israeli leaders had made a final decision, and the chances of an attack depend on the results of the negotiations between the Trump administration and Iran.
One source told CNN that the “chance of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility has gone up significantly in recent months” and the “prospect of a Trump-negotiated US-Iran deal that doesn’t remove all of Iran’s uranium makes the chance of a strike more likely.”
Iranian officials have made clear that the idea of eliminating Iran’s uranium enrichment program is a non-starter, although US officials continue to make the demand.
The CNN report acknowledged that Israel doesn’t have the capacity to destroy Iran’s nuclear program without support from the US. A senior US official said that the US was stepping up intelligence collection to be prepared to assist in an Israeli attack on Iran, but another source said it was unlikely Trump would support such a move at this time.
An Israeli source said that Israel could launch an attack on its own if the US and Iran were to negotiate what it considers a “bad deal.”
Another source said that it was more likely Israel would launch the strike during the negotiations to sabotage the chances of the agreement. “I think it’s more likely they strike to try and get the deal to fall apart if they think Trump is going to settle for a ‘bad deal,’” the source said. “The Israelis have not been shy about signaling that to us … both publicly and privately.”
President Trump previously declined to back an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, opting instead for diplomacy. But he has conducted the negotiations under the threat that if a deal isn’t reached, the US will bomb Iran.
The president has been threatening to attack Iran over its nuclear program even though US intelligence agencies have recently reaffirmed there’s no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon.
