Gantz informs Biden administration of updated Israeli plans to strike Iran
Israel's defense minster joins other officials in subtle warning to Washington over Iran nuclear talks.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday said that Israel’s military is updating its operational plans for a potential future strike on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites.
Gantz’s comments come as the Biden administration considers its options for resuming negotiations on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. Israeli officials, chief among them Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have opposed the deal, calling it insufficient for preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in the long term.
“If the world stops them before, it’s very much good. But if not, we must stand independently and we must defend ourselves by ourselves,” Gantz told Fox News in an interview Thursday.
It is not the first time a member of Netanyahu’s government has signaled Israel’s preparedness to strike Iran unilaterally. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi revealed in January that he had instructed the military to come up with new operational plans to knock out Iran's nuclear sites.
