Israel Strikes Iran In A Long-Anticipated Attack

Israel, having launched Operation Rising Lion, its long-anticipated preemptive attack on Iran, has opened a stunning new chapter in its bruising confrontation with its deadliest enemy.

The regional Mideast war that the United States tried to head off after Hamas’ attack against Israel in 2023 may have begun.

Starting around 3 a.m. on June 13, more than 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft struck some 100 military targets in six Iranian cities. Since then, Israel has bombed 15 sites in Iran, including Tehran, Tabriz, Qom, Arak, Kermanshah, Hamedan and Shiraz.

For the first time, Israel — the only nuclear power in the Middle East — has struck Iranian nuclear facilities. The sites are in Natanz and Isfahan.

It is clear that Iran is experiencing the biggest assault on its territory since its war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988.

Smoke rises from buildings in Tehran bombed by Israel

“We struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program,” announced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly threatened to destroy it. Calling it “a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival, he said, “We struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear weaponization program. We targeted Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz. We targeted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on an Iranian bomb. We also struck at the heart of Iran’s ballistic missile program.”

Benjamin Netanyahu announces Israel’s strike in Iran

Netanyahu ordered the attack only hours after the publication of news reports that Israel was hours away from striking Iran. Waves of Israeli aircraft struck Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility in Natantz, seriously damaging it. Later, Israel hit a nuclear site in Isfahan. Israel and the United States, in a joint operation 15 years ago, targeted Natanz with the Stuxnet computer virus, temporarily crippling the plant. In 2021, Israel attempted to sabotage it, but Iran repaired the damage and upgraded its centrifuges.

Israel struck the Natanz nuclear facility

From secret bases inside Iran, Mossad operatives fired drones at Iranian rocket launchers and facilities housing Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal.

And in a devastating blow at Iran’s military and political chain of command, Israeli jets bombed their residences, killing Mohammad Bagheri, the commander-in-chief of the Iranian armed forces; Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps; Ali Shamkhani, a leading politician in charge of overseeing Iran’s nuclear talks with the United States, and nine scientists at the core of Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, lambasted Israel’s strikes as a “declaration of war” and warned that “the Zionist regime has set itself up for a bitter and painful fate.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned Israel’s “cowardly” attack. “The Islamic Republic of Iran, with full determination, will take action to defend its sovereignty, people and national security, and will respond decisively to the Zionist regime’s illegal and cowardly aggression.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that, if necessary, Iran will rebuild its nuclear facilities. “These capabilities exist in our minds, and therefore, whatever they do, we will rebuild again.”

As expected, Iran retaliated forcefully, firing a barrage of drones and ballistic missiles at Israeli cities. Most were intercepted, thanks, in part, to U.S. assistance.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz meets the general staff before Israel’s strike on Iran on June 13

But a few projectiles got through, killing a woman in Ramat Gan and a man and a woman in Rishon Lezion. More than 70 Israelis have been wounded in these attacks. These casualties, probably the first of many more to come, prompted Defence Minister Israel Katz to say that Iran had targeted civilian population concentrations and had therefore “crossed red lines.”

The scene of an Iranian ballistic missile strike in Tel Aviv yesterday

Although Iran has been battered, it remains a formidable foe. Unlike in the past, Iran can no longer depend on assistance from Lebanese and Palestinian proxies in its diminished Axis of Resistance. In wars with Israel, Hezbollah was badly battered and Hamas was routed.

The direct confrontation between Israel and Iran was inevitable, given Iran’s complicity in Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s perception that Iran intended to weaponize its nuclear program.

Iran encouraged Hamas’ attack, and Israel will never forget its key role in that massacre. Nor will Israel ever come to terms with a country that seeks its demise.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran already has enough highly enriched uranium at near weapons-grade scale to build ten atomic bombs in less than a year.

The Iranian regime denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and claims that nuclear bombs are contrary to the tenets of Islam. But Iran has enriched uranium to 60 percent, far above what is necessary for civilian purposes, and a short step away from 90 percent weapons-grade uranium.

The International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution on June 12 declaring that Iran is in non-compliance with its nuclear safeguards obligations. By way of response, Iran defiantly said it would build a new enrichment plant and increase uranium enrichment.

This development alarmed Israel, which is convinced that Iran intends to build a nuclear arsenal.

Netanyahu recently told U.S. President Donald Trump that Iran should face a constant “credible military threat.” Trump, expressing his preference for a diplomatic solution, asked Netanyahu to refrain from attacking Iran as long as the United States and Iran are engaged in talks to revise the 2015 nuclear agreement, from which the first Trump administration unilaterally withdraw in 2018.

Since April, there have been five such rounds. A sixth one was scheduled to take place in Oman on June 15, but Iran cancelled it. Netanyahu believes that negotiations with Iran are futile and that Iran is “playing” the U.S. in a bid to “gain time.”

Despite his skepticism, Netanyahu recently assured Trump that he would not launch an attack unless he, Trump, signalled that the negotiations had faltered or failed. In the meantime, however, Israel began preparing a strike against Iran.

Expecting an attack, Iran repaired air defence batteries that Israel degraded last October during its second direct clash with Iran since April.

On June 11, Trump admitted he was growing “less confident” of closing a deal with Iran. “They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame, but I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago,” he told the New York Post. “Something happened to them.”

On the same day, Trump told Fox News that Iran has become “much more aggressive” in the negotiations.

Iran and the U.S. disagree on the pivotal issue of uranium enrichment. The lead U.S. negotiator, Steve Witkoff, has stated that Iran cannot have an enrichment program on its soil. “We have one very, very clear red line, and that is enrichment,” he said on May 18. “We cannot allow even one percent of an enrichment capability.”

On June 3, Trump reiterated U.S. policy, underscoring his twin beliefs that Iranian scientists cannot enrich uranium in Iran and that Iran must never be allowed to attain nuclear capability.

Iran rejected the U.S. position, saying it is ready to enrich uranium to civilian levels at 3.67 percent, the limit set by the 2015 agreement. Khamenei, who had predicted that talks with the U.S. would fail, said that the abandonment of uranium enrichment was “100 percent” against Iran’s interests.

Araghchi and Pezeshkian rejected Witkoff’s demand as well, declaring that Iran would not accept zero enrichment. “The principle of enrichment itself is simply non-negotiable,” said Araghchi.

Although Trump was not keen about Operation Rising Lion, he hailed Israel’s strikes as “excellent,” warned there was much more to come, and urged Iran to continue negotiations with the United States. “I think it’s been excellent. We gave them a chance, and they didn’t take it. They got hit hard, very hard. They got hit about as hard as you’re going to get hit. And there’s more to come. A lot more.”

In the Trump administration’s first statement on the clashes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio distanced the United States from Israel, its chief ally in the region.

“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran,” said Rubio, who has always been one of Israel’s best friends. “We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”

Rubio issued this statement shortly after Iran’s defence minister, Aziz Nasirzadeh, warned the U.S. to stay out of its conflict with Israel and threatened to attack American bases in the region.

At this early point, the duration of this war has yet to be determined. But Israeli officials have warned that it could be prolonged and bitter. Israel and Iran are both driven by the desire and the ability to inflict significant pain on each other.

Tzachi Hanegbi, Netanyahu’s national security adviser, has voiced doubt whether Israel can completely destroy Iran’s nuclear program by military means. The overarching goal of Operation Rising Lion, he said, is to damage Iranian nuclear sites and exert pressure on Iran to dismantle its nuclear program.

Israel alone cannot achieve these objectives. Israel will need the firepower of the United States to obliterate Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but it is doubtful whether Trump will cooperate.