Minister Yuval Steinitz. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
If its back is against the wall, Israel will take any action necessary to defend itself, Israel’s minister of Strategic Affairs and Intelligence, Yuval Steinitz affirmed.
Reports emerging from the nuclear talks in Lausanne indicate that the US is doing its utmost to achieve a deal with Iran. Known details of the agreement reveal that Iran will attain its dangerous nuclear capabilities, enabling the Islamic Republic to develop an atomic weapon within a short period of time.
Faced with this threat, Israel may resort to the use of military force to defend itself, Israeli Minister of Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz stated on Thursday.
Speaking on IDF radio, Steinitz said Israel is seeking to counter the Iranian nuclear threat through diplomacy, but “if we have no choice, we have no choice… the military option is on the table.”
Asked about possible US objection, Steinitz pointed to Israel’s attack on the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981. “This operation was not carried out in agreement with the United States,” he said. The US initially reacted with anger to the Israeli attack and condemned it but later on thanked Israel for taking action.
Steinitz emphasized that there was no doubt as to what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response would be to a nuclear-armed Iran. “The prime minister has said clearly that Israel will not allow Iran to become a nuclear power.”
Iran has repeatedly threatened to annihilate Israel, and on Wednesday Mohammad Reza Naqdi, commander of the Basij militia of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, declared that “erasing Israel off the map” was “non-negotiable,” relating to the negotiations in Switzerland.
“Yesterday, an Iranian general brazenly declared, and I quote, ‘Israel’s destruction is non-negotiable’, but evidently, giving Iran’s murderous regime a clear path to the bomb is negotiable,” Netanyahu responded. “Iran must stop its aggression in the region, stop its terrorism throughout the world and stop its threats to annihilate Israel. That should be non-negotiable, and that’s the deal that the world powers must insist upon.”
By: Aryeh Savir
Staff Writer, United with Israel
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