Israel Fakes Panic Over Iranian Missiles To Push U.S. Towards Another War With the Islamic Republic
In an unsurprising development, Israel is planning a new war on Iran, and actively working on securing support from the United States for this by using the Islamic Republic’s missile program as a pretext.
This was first revealed by
NBC News which reported on December 20 that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will present plans for a possible fresh attack on Iran to President Donald Trump during his upcoming visit to the U.S. The meeting is expected to take place in the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida at the end of the month.
According to the report, Israel is growing increasingly concerned that Iran is rebuilding and even expanding its ballistic missile production in the wake of the nations’ 12-day war in June.
The last war began with Israel stating that it was going after Iran’s nuclear program, but quickly escalated to include an unprecedented wave of assassinations and attacks on missile and drone sites, in addition to civilian facilities, which left over a thousand Iranians dead. The Islamic Republic responded with a series of missile and drone attacks, killing at least 28 in Israel.
The report by NBC News also said that Israel is worried that the Islamic Republic is rebuilding its nuclear enrichment program.
The report started a wave of claims related to the Islamic Republic’s missile program. The most notable of which came from
Iran International, a Saudi-funded, Persian-speaking TV based in the United Kingdom.
The news channel reported, right after NBC News released its report, that Western intelligence agencies had detected unusual activity involving Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force.
The activity involves movements and coordination beyond normal patterns, including Iranian drone, missile and air defense units, Western officials familiar with the assessments told the channel, adding that the developments could be linked to military exercises.
The officials, however, noted that the scale and synchronization had drawn closer scrutiny, and revealed that Intelligence services are tracking command-and-control signals, deployments and logistical movements associated with the IRGC Aerospace Force.
These claims were repeated just a day later by
Axios. The U.S.-based news website said that Israel had warned the Trump administration that the IRGC may be using an ongoing military exercise focusing on missiles as cover to launch an attack on its territory.
Citing Israeli and US sources, the website said that Israel has a much lower risk tolerance after Hamas’s October 2023 attack. It also noted that the country issued previous such warnings six months ago when it identified similar movements of Iranian missiles.
“The chances for an Iranian attack are less than 50 percent, but nobody is willing to take the risk and just say it is only an exercise,” an Israeli source was quoted as saying.
Notably, an American source told Axios that the U.S. intelligence community has not seen any signs that an Iranian strike could be imminent.
The website reported that Israel’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir discussed the recent developments with Adm. Bradley Cooper, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, in Tel Aviv on December 21.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump and an unhinged supporter of Israel, was quick to adopt the narrative and push for U.S. support of any new war on Iran.
On the same day Axios released its report, the influential Republican lawmaker said that the U.S. should strike Iran again if there is credible evidence that the Islamic Republic is rebuilding its nuclear enrichment program or expanding its ballistic missile capabilities.
“We obliterated the Iranian nuclear facilities. We did not obliterate Iran’s desire to have a nuclear weapon,” Graham said, speaking to reporters from Tel Aviv.
“Are they regenerating their nuclear capability? Are they building more ballistic missiles that could hurt Europe and Israel? I don’t know, but there’s evidence that, yes, they are,” he continued.
“If there’s credible evidence that Iran is going back into the enrichment business at other sites, that they’re trying to build more ballistic missiles to terrorize Israel and maybe Europe, that we hit them before they can do that,” the senator added.
Trump has not yet commented on the recent accusations against Iran, but his public stance on this may not be of much value.
For months before the 12-day war, Trump advocated for talks with Iran. It was only after the U.S. joined the war by attacking three underground nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic that it became known that the talks were a part of a deception campaign. A report published by
The Washington Post on December 17 very much confirmed this.
In fact, in a way, the U.S. has already begun taking action against the Islamic Republic’s missile program based on the narrative being promoted by Israel.
A report by
The Wall Street Journal from December 12 revealed that U.S. forces boarded a ship in the Indian Ocean last month and seized military-related cargo headed to Iran from China. The cargo consisted of dual-use items, with both civilian and military applications, which was going to Iranian companies that specialize in procuring components for its missile program.
U.S. support was critical for the June war. Israel didn’t have the capability to attack Iran’s top three nuclear facilities, the Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center. American B-2 Spirit stealth bombers armed with over a dozen Massive Ordnance Penetrators did the job.
The situation is not different with Iran’s missile facilities. Most of the storage and launch sites are deep into mountains. During the past war, Israel failed to stop the launch of missiles because of this, and towards the end of the war attacks became more effective as its multi-layered air defense network was depleted.
If the U.S. joins a new attack aimed at destroying Iran’s missile program, it will likely do much more than the one-off strike we saw during the 12-day war.
Iran has begun to push back against this new narrative. During his weekly press briefing on December 22, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei stated that the missile program has been developed solely for the defense of Iran’s territorial integrity.
“Iran’s missile program has been developed to defend the country, not for negotiation,” the spokesman said.
“The defensive capabilities of Iran, which are designed to deter any aggressor from contemplating an attack on Iran, are not a matter for discussion,” he added.
Iran may indeed be its missile program, its first means of deterrence. Nevertheless, there is no evidence whatsoever that the Islamic Republic is working on expanding the range of its missiles beyond the 2,000 kilometer limit it has so far committed to.
Just before the last war, Iran can likely do nothing to avoid an attack by Israel and the U.S. There is even no more trust to politically engage with the Trump administration.
The emerging threat to Iran coincides with Israeli escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the top ally of the Islamic Republic. The upcoming meeting between Netanyahu and Trump at the end of the year coincides with the end of an ultimatum Israel has set for the group.
Considering all recent development, within a few weeks Israel could start a new round of fighting from Lebanon to Iran and possibly other fronts, like Iraq and Yemen.
In an unsurprising development, Israel is planning a new war on Iran, and actively working on securing support from the...
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