Israel military ‘preparing plans’ against Iran as US considers revisiting nuclear accord

A leading Israeli general has revealed that the military could expand military plans against Iran after newly elected US President Joe Biden revealed his desire to reopen negotiations with Tehran and potentially return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

Israeli Lieutenant-General Amir Kohavi told an audience at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies that the US’ return to the 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran would be “wrong”.

“In light of this fundamental analysis, I have instructed the Israel Defence Forces to prepare a number of operational plans, in addition to those already in place,” Kohavi said.

“It will be up to the political leadership, of course, to decide on implementation but these plans need to be on the table.”

The comments were an apparent signal to US President Joe Biden to tread cautiously in any diplomatic engagement with Iran.

“A return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, or even if it is a similar accord with several improvements, is bad and wrong from an operational and strategic point of view,” Kohavi said.

Donald Trump pulled the US out of the nuclear deal in 2018, prompting Iran to increase its uranium enrichment program and eventually surpassing the limits imposed in the deal.

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Koravi said Iran’s actions showed that it intends to develop nuclear weapons – an accusation Iran has repeatedly denied.

US/Iran relations strained

Relations between the US and Iran deteriorated further in 2018 following Trump’s withdrawal for the nuclear agremeent.

The US launched a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, including crippling economic sanctions.

Following the inauguration of President Joe Biden, Iran called on the new administration to “unconditionally” lift sanctions imposed by his predecessor.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif published an op-ed in the US foreign policy magazine Foreign Affairs on Tehran’s view towards saving the deal.

“The new administration in Washington has a fundamental choice to make,” Zarif, who is considered one of the architects of the 2015 nuclear deal, wrote in the op-ed.

“It can embrace the failed policies of the Trump administration”, or Biden “can choose a better path by ending Trump’s failed policy of ‘maximum pressure’ and returning to the deal his predecessor abandoned. But if Washington instead insists on extracting concessions, then this opportunity will be lost.”