Official: Israel will attack Iran to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons

Israel is willing to use military force against Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, Israeli Minister of Transportation and Intelligence Yisrael Katz said during a visit to Tokyo yesterday.

“If international efforts, led these days by US President Trump, don’t help stop Iran obtaining nuclear capabilities, Israel will act militarily by itself,” Katz was quoted as saying.

“There are changes that can be made to ensure that they will never have the ability to have a nuclear weapon,” the minister said in reference to the agreement signed between Iran and the P5+1 countries; the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.

Trump announced two weeks ago that he will not certify the Iranian nuclear deal while CIA chief Mike Pompeo claimed “the agreement has failed to stop Iran’s progress toward acquiring a nuclear weapon, as well as thwarting its terrorist operations in the Middle East”.

Read: Israeli minister says was misunderstood on war remarks with Iran

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said yesterday that Tel Aviv faces “enormous challenges” especially “the Iranian threat and its Shia militias on the northeastern border” claiming that Iran is “working to build a stifling circle” around Israel.

In 2010, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Ehud Barak planned to attack Iran but their plan was foiled.

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