The Israeli government has told the Biden administration that it will avoid striking nuclear enrichment and oil production sites when it makes its initial response to Iran’s recent missile attack, two officials said on Tuesday.
Such a move would reduce the likelihood that Israel’s retaliation will immediately set off an all-out war between the two adversaries, amid concerns in Washington over being dragged into a bigger Middle East confrontation with the presidential election just weeks away.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy, said that Israel had agreed to focus its next attack on military targets in Iran, instead of those related to Iran’s oil industry or its uranium enrichment efforts. The pledge was first reported by the Washington Post.
While no final decision is believed to have been made, an Israeli retaliation could still be large in scale, possibly prompting Iran to continue the cycle of attacks. And the officials said that Israel’s assurances related only to its next attack — meaning that it could still pursue more ambitious targets in future rounds of fighting with Iran.
For decades, Iran has sought Israel’s destruction while Israel has pushed to collapse the Iranian regime, leading to a decades-long shadow war in which each side has secretly attacked the other’s interests and supported the other’s enemies.
That covert war has broken out into the open in recent months, partly because of Israel’s war with Hamas, an ally and proxy of Iran. Hamas unsuccessfully tried to persuade Iran to participate in the attack on Israel last October that prompted Israel to invade Gaza, according to documents obtained by The Times, but Iran has supported Hamas with funds and diplomatic support.
Iran fired a huge barrage of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in April after Israel killed several Iranian commanders. Israel responded by striking an Iranian radar station and later killed a Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, as he visited Tehran. This month, Iran fired another huge round of missiles at Israel, partly in response to Mr. Haniyeh’s assassination — setting the Middle East further on edge as it awaits Israel’s next move.
U.S. officials believe that if Israel goes after Iran’s most sensitive sites, the result could be an uncontrolled escalation. President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel spoke last week for the first time in months as relations between the two allies have sharply deteriorated, with neither side publicly mentioning Israel’s plans to respond to Iran.
In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu’s office said: “We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interests.” The U.S. Embassy in Israel declined to comment.
Even if it avoids Iran’s nuclear enrichment and oil sites, Israel could still hit a wide array of military targets. They include missile and drone launchers, missile and drone storage sites, missile and drone factories, as well as military bases and major government buildings, according to two Israeli officials briefed on the planning process, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military matters. These two officials said that Israel could also strike nuclear research laboratories, even if it avoids Iran’s subterranean nuclear enrichment sites.
Mr. Netanyahu met with security chiefs at an intelligence base on Sunday to discuss the plan and his government has yet to agree on a specific approach, the two Israeli officials said.
The officials added that some Israeli leaders want to reduce tensions with Iran to reach a truce in Lebanon, where the Israeli military has launched an air and ground campaign targeting Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia. Other Israeli leaders feel they have a rare opportunity to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities at some point in the near future, and believe that fueling a bigger confrontation with Iran would help create a pretext for such a strike during future rounds of conflict, the officials said.
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