Israel Willing to Stand Alone, Attack Iran to Stop Nuclear Program

Israel knows that a nuclear-capable Iran is having a neighbor with a gun to its head and the Iranians have made it clear, they intend to destroy the state of Israel. So the Israeli government is willing to resort to military action, alone if necessary to ensure Iran never acquires nuclear weapons.

Israel’s intelligence minister Israel Katz made these comments on Thursday in Japan where he is hoping that U.S. President Donald Trump’s will back their tough stance on Tehran’s nuclear capabilities.

“If international efforts led these days by U.S. President Trump don’t help stop Iran attaining nuclear capabilities, Israel will act militarily by itself,” Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said in an interview in Tokyo. “There are changes that can be made (to the agreement) to ensure that they will never have the ability to have a nuclear weapon.”

Israel has taken unilateral action in the past without the consent of its major ally, the United States, including air strikes on a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007 and in Iraq in 1981. A strike against Iran, however, would be a risky venture with the potential to provoke a counter strike and roil financial markets.

“We will not allow Iran to transform Syria into forward base sea harbors, air bases and Shia militias,” he said. “We will act together with the United States and other countries in the world until they stop the ballistic missiles that threaten Israel.”

The Japanese have been one of the US’ staunchest allies in the east, and Katz was hoping to stoke the fires there ahead of President Trump’s visit on November 5. But the Japanese get nearly all of their oil from the Middle East and have tried for a very long time to get along with all of the players there, including Iran.

The other NATO powers have not agreed that this is an option and if the US and Israel decide to take action, they’ll no doubt be alone in this. Which may actually encourage Tehran to act even more boldly in the near future.

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