Israel Approves 5 Billion NIS Budget For Potential Strikes On Iranian Nuclear Program

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israel recently approved a 5 billion shekels ($1.5 billion) budget to prepare its security forces for a potential strike against Iran’s nuclear program, according to a report by Channel 12 Monday. The budget would include funds for aircraft, intelligence-gathering and unique types of armaments required to attack the heavily fortified nuclear locations in Iran.

The report comes just days after the US Air Force announced that it had carried out a successful test of its new “bunker buster,” the GBU-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator. The 5,000-pound bomb could be used as a tool to strike Iranian nuclear sites.

Israel does not have the fighter of bomber capabilities to carry such bombs but does have smaller bunker busters in its arsenal which are not considered strong enough to pierce the Iranian Fordo facility buried deep under the ground.

However Channel 12 surmised that the coincidental timing of the two publications by the Israeli and US security establishments may be an attempt to bring Iran back to the Vienna negotiating table and revive the 2015 JCPOA(Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), which Iran walked away from last June after hardliner Ebrahim Raisi was elected president.

In recent days, there have been conflicting reports that the negotiations could resume soon, possibly next week. Iranian media claimed Sunday that a meeting was to take place in Brussels on Thursday to discuss resuming the Vienna talks. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian had reportedly confirmed the Brussels meeting. However, the European Union on Monday denied that a meeting had been scheduled for Thursday, contradicting Tehran.

IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi told the Walla news site recently that Israel has “greatly accelerated” preparations for action against Iran’s nuclear program.

Kohavi said that “a significant chunk of the boost to the defense budget, as was recently agreed, was intended for this purpose. It’s a very complicated job, with much more intelligence, much more operational capabilities, much more armaments. We’re working on all these things.”

Kohav publicly declared last January that the IDF was preparing fresh “operational plans” for a potent military strike, and in August added that Iran’s nuclear progress has prompted the IDF “to speed up its operational plans,” with a fresh budget to do so.

In his speech to the UN General Assembly last month, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that “Iran’s nuclear program has hit a watershed moment, and so has our tolerance. Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning… We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”

The US administration has stressed that it is still making efforts to revive the JCPOA but failing this, “other options” will be on the table.