Chief Of Staff: IDF ‘accelerating’ operational readiness to deal with Iran
The IDF is “accelerating” its readiness to contend with Iran’s nuclear and military threat to Israel while contending with six arenas simultaneously, IDF Chief of Staff Avi Kochavi told the Knesset.
IDF CoS Avi Kochavi. (Shalev Shalom/TPS)
Speaking at the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee on Tuesday, Kochavi said that “the State of Israel has many security challenges in six different arenas. In the past year, the IDF has continued to act in defence, in counterterrorism, and in the offence. In the past year, we have continued to act against our enemies in operations, in covert operations throughout the Middle East.”
“The IDF will continue to act to remove the threats and will respond forcefully to any violation of [Israel’s] sovereignty, whether it is in the Gaza Strip or in the north, or whether it is an Iranian force or a Palestinian force,” he declared.
“Along with the very extensive operational activity, the IDF is in the process of changing and adapting all the IDF units to the present and future battlefield needs. The change is based on modernization processes and procurement,” he noted.
“At the same time, the IDF is accelerating its operational plans and its readiness to deal with Iran and the military nuclear threat,” he underscored.
Israel has warned that the Iranian nuclear program has reached a critical stage and is weeks away from accumulating the material needed for a nuclear bomb, requiring action.
Committee Chairman Ram Ben Barak, a former senior Mossad official, said that “above all the challenges stands as a black cloud that brings a curse on the Middle East – Iran. The number one terrorist exporter in the world. There is not a single act of terrorism on the globe whose fingerprints do not reach back to the regime of the ayatollahs in Iran.”
“Iran is trying to establish a terrorist infrastructure in Syria, accelerating attempts to transfer strategic weapons to Hezbollah, trying to develop terrorist infrastructures in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, working to hit Jewish and Israeli targets abroad, operating in cyberspace and advancing its nuclear capability, which will serve as an umbrella for increasing its aggression in the region,” he warned.
“The IDF and the defence establishment are operating 24/7 openly and covertly in an ongoing campaign against Iran and its metastases,” he added.
MK Tzachi Hanegbi, who has previously served as chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee and as a member of the Security Cabinet, said last month that if a nuclear agreement is not reached between Iran and the powers by the end of 2021, Israel must attack Iran.
“Iran is an existential threat. We are approaching the crossroads of a decision on the Iranian issue,” he said. That leaves Israel with less than two months.
The Biden administration is seeking to reengage Tehran in talks on a new nuclear agreement, while Europe is seeking to salvage the one signed in 2015, which the US under Donald Trump left. However, Washington appears to be sceptical of the prospects of such a development.
