Fear of escalation after massive Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear and military goals

Israel has early this Friday large -scale attacks In many dozens of nuclear and military goals in Iran. According to Israeli spokespersons, about two hundred aircraft are involved in the actions. In Israel itself, citizens had to look up the shelters and tens of thousands of extra soldiers were called to help the country defend against Iranian counterattacks. Iran has already carried out a retaliation attack on Israel, with a hundred drones and with rockets.

This has initiated a scenario for which many in the Middle East and beyond feared for a long time: an extensive conflict between the arch enemies Israel and Iran. This can further stir up the already large tensions in the region, precisely because today’s attacks are so much larger than the relatively limited armed confrontations that both countries already had together last year.

Prime Minister Netanyahu stated in a video message That the operation was needed to put an end to the nuclear threat that, according to him, is based on Irans Nuclear program. According to the prime minister, he touches « the pure survival of Israel ». According to him, the actions will continue if necessary.

‘US are not involved’

The United States immediately announced that it was not involved in the attack on Iran. The main why the Americans are currently concerned in Washington, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is the safety of their countrymen in the Middle East. President Trump, however, raised the National Security Council in emergency session. The US also warned Iran to spare American goals in its counterattacks.

Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have been familiarized for years on an attack on the nuclear facilities of Iran, which have been considered a threat to his safety in Israel from the start. Experts, however, doubted whether Israel could succeed without American help with his relatively limited arsenal, partly because part of Irans Nuclear installations are deep underground.

The damage that the Israeli bombing of bombing is not yet clear on Friday morning. One of the gone goals is Iran’s most important enrichment factory for uranium at the town of Natanz. The IAEA, the UN atomic office in Vienna, announced a few hours later that no increased radioactive radiation had been observed at Natanz. According to the IAEA, not all nuclear facilities have been hit. For example, no damage was reported from Isfahan and from Bushehr.

Nuclear experts killed

Israel also killed The commander of the revolutionary guard, General Hossein Salami, on the basis of the elite unit in the east of the capital Tehran. The staff chef of the Iranian army, General Mohammed Bagheri, was the same fate. In addition, six nuclear experts were killed. Other citizens, including children, would have died, Iranian sources reported.

Iran’s supreme leader, now 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced in a speech « a strict punishment » by Israel. « If God allows it, the powerful hands of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic will not leave it unpunished. » Khamenei immediately appointed deputies for the killed generals.

A spokesperson for the Israeli army, General Ephrin Defrin, then stated that the operation was partly inspired by new information that Iran was accelerated to acquire nuclear weapons. However, he did not give evidence for this.

It is known that Iran, which has always maintained that his nuclear program only serves peaceful purposes, has enriched around four hundred kilos of uranium in recent years to a level of sixty percent. This is significantly more than required for peaceful use. Usually such high enriched uranium is mainly used for nuclear weapons (for which 90 percent enriched uranium is required).

Uranium for nuclear bombs

IAEA, which Iran reproached for the first time in twenty years for violations of his obligations under the non-proliferation treatment, recently estimated that Irans would be highly enriched uranium sufficient for nine nuclear bombs, if it wanted to produce it. Incidentally, according to experts, Iran would certainly cost months to attach the highly enriched uranium to rockets in the form of core heads.

While Israel’s attacks had already started on Iran, there were still several civil aircraft in Iranian airspace. This is now closed. The airspace is now also closed in Israel and in Iraq. Many flights have also been canceled in Dubai. The oil price, traditionally sensitive to tensions in the Middle East, rose immediately by 8 percent on Friday.

Why Israel has now made his attack is not clear. According to reports from, among others, Israeli television, President Trump had requested Monday during a telephone conversation with Netanyahu not to implement such an attack. Trump reportedly first wanted to await the results of a new (indirect) negotiation round with Iran, which would take place in Oman next Sunday.

However, Israeli media now report that Netanyahu would have decided last Monday to let the attack continue. Not only Trump, Iran could also be surprised. However, there are also analysts who assume that Trump Netanyahu secretly already gave the green light against Iran on Monday. Trump acknowledged Friday in advance of the Israeli attack.

Most Arab countries condemned Israeli action and that also applied to Turkey.

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