Tel Aviv. While the US keeps trying to get to the negotiations table with Iran, Israel rejects any future agreement with Teheran. In parallel, Israel has intensified its actions against Iran in different arenas in the Middle East and Gulf region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared publicly about the conflict with Washington. He said that any agreement with Iran that allows it a path to develop nuclear weapons, will not be accepted by Israel.
Dr. Mordechai Kedar, an expert on Iran said that the American policy is “way beyond naivety “. He added that with a country like Iran, you have to talk with a “whip in hand” and not to try and persuade it with “nice words”. Iran is playing tough. It repeatedly attacks target in Saudi Arabia and this country does not react.
As part of its preparations for a military confrontation with Iran, Israel is adding capabilities to its armed forces that will enable dealing with Iranian attacks, mainly by using long range ballistic missiles. In such an event Israel wants to be ready to hit back, fast and with great accuracy.
Earlier this week, a Gulfstream G-550 business jet landed in an Israeli Air Force airbase. As reported by Raksha Aniverda, this aircraft will be equipped with systems that will enable it to get information about vast areas on land and sea, using a very advanced AESA radar and other sensors, all developed by Elta the electronics subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
And according to the foreign media Israel stepped up its operations against Iranian targets. According to the U.S media, Israel is behind the attack on the Iranian ship in the red sea.
If these reports are true than it proves that Israel has expanded its war against Iran to the maritime arena. This after hundreds of aerial attacks on shipment of weapons on their way from Iran to Lebanon.
According to the New York Times, Israel notified the US that it is responsible for the Tuesday attack on an Iranian cargo ship affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps off the coast of Eritrea in the Red Sea.
Iranian news outlet Tasnim, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported that the ship’s hull was damaged in an explosion caused by explosive charges. According to Saudi Arabia, the blast was caused by “Israeli commandos”.
The United States Naval Institute (USNI) reported last year that the damaged ship Saviz, while officially listed as a merchant ship, was likely a covert IRGC forward base. On Tuesday, news agency Tasnim confirmed this, saying that the ship had been stationed in the Red Sea in recent years to support Iranian commandos escorting commercial vessels. The alleged Israeli attack, follows two strikes on Israeli owned ships that sailed in the in the region.
While the U.S is making big efforts to persuade Iran to stop the Uranium enrichment as part of this country’s nuclear program, Israeli sources claim that even if Iran agrees this will not slow its nuclear program as they know how to operate the centrifuges in covert sites that the international observers cannot visit. “Israel does not need the observer’s reports. It knows exactly what the Iranian do”, one source said.
In a new development last night, a missile attack near the Syrian capital of Damascus has wounded four soldiers, according to Syria’s state media which blamed Israel for the attack.
Syria’s state news agency SANA, quoting an unidentified military official, said Syrian air defenses were able to shoot down most of the missiles before they hit their targets. Damascus residents reported hearing at least one explosion. The missiles were fired from the direction of neighboring Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, state television said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported that military posts near Damascus were targets, but gave no further details.
Al-Manar TV, of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, said one of the Syrian air defense missiles exploded near the Lebanon-Syria border and was heard in parts of southern Lebanon.
Israeli defense sources said that the updated intelligence proves that Iran does not have any intention to stop its military nuclear program. “It does not leave Israel any alternative but to get ready for a full scale military confrontation aimed at stopping the Iranian effort in time”, one of the sources said.
-The writer is an International Roving Correspondent of the publication.
