Key take aways
Explosions rocked Tehran early Friday morning, as Israel carried out a major attack on Iran intended to cripple the country’s nuclear program, Israeli officials said. The strikes raised fears the long-simmering conflict between the two countries could escalate into a war involving the most powerful militaries in the Middle East.
Israel appears to have entered a new phase in its attacks on Iran’s critical personnel with these strikes. For years, Israel targeted In Iran’s senior military leadership and many of its top nuclear scientists individually. Some were killed by sticky bombs attached to their car doors. The country’s chief nuclear scientist was killed in a robot-assisted assassination. But some of the strikes tonight appeared to be part of an effort to kill such personnel en masse.
State television is broadcasting footage from the Mahalati complex where military commanders live and showing buildings still on fire and emergency crews still putting out the fire. The state television reports that two residential buildings have collapsed, causing fatalities and injuries, and that cars have burnt and windows have shattered in the area.
Shortly after the strike against Iran on Friday, Israel’s defense minister said the country was bracing for a retaliatory missile and drone attack “in the immediate time frame.”
The defense minister, Israel Katz, said he had signed an order declaring a “special emergency” and called on the public to follow guidelines from the authorities, and to remain in protected areas.
A U.S. defense official said that air defense systems were being deployed to protect the more than 40,000 American troops scattered at more than a dozen military bases in the region, but declined to say what role the United States was taking in Israel’s defense in the event of Iranian retaliation.Brig.
Gen. Effie Defrin, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said Israel could not “allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon that would be a danger to Israel and the entire world.”
“We have no choice,” he said in video shared with reporters. “We are operating against an imminent and existential threat.
”Netanyahu said Israel had acted to stop Iran “buying for time” amid ongoing talks with the United States.
He praised President Trump for “leadership” without commenting on whether the United States had backed the strike.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, just issued his first remarks since the Israeli attack on Iran, in a video statement.
Netanyahu said that Israel had attacked Iran’s main nuclear “enrichment facility in Natanz,” as well as “Iran’s leading nuclear scientists.”
He accused Iran of advancing its nuclear program, calling it “a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival.
”Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the United States was “not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.” He added that “Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense.”
He ended his statement with a warning to Iran against any form of retaliation aimed at the U.S. forces in the region: “Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
An Israeli military official briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity in line with army rules said that Israeli intelligence indicated that Iran had been advancing a secret program to assemble a nuclear weapon and said that the country now had enough material to rapidly assemble nuclear bombs. He added that the project was reaching a point of no return.The strikes on Iran have had an immediate impact on civilian flights in the region, especially over or near Tehran. “Some flights are routing around the city or diverting, but there are many flights currently transiting Iranian airspace,” the aviation tracker Flightradar24 said. The aviation tracker said flights had started to divert away from Iran as a whole.
Netanyahu has made preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon his signature platform for decades. He spoke in historic terms early Friday, saying in an address in Hebrew that Israel was facing “difficult days, but great days” ahead. “Together, with God’s help, we will ensure Israel’s eternity,” he added.
Netanyahu said in a video statement that Israel’s operation would continue “for as many days as it takes.”
Crude oil prices have jumped sharply following the Israeli attack, with the Brent crude oil future price jumping 8 percent to $75 a barrel. Iran lies on the northern side of the Strait of Hormuz, at the exit of the Persian Gulf, positioning Iran to block much of the oil exports of Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and smaller Persian Gulf states if it wishes to do so in retaliation for the Israeli strikeNetanyahu said Iran has “taken steps that it has never taken before — steps to weaponize this enriched uranium.”
He did not provide specific evidence or additional detail about those steps, but added, “if not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year. It could be within a few months.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday ordered the State Department to form a new Middle East task force, drawing from many different offices in the agency, to handle needs arising from the crisis in the region, said a U.S. official with knowledge of the action. The purpose of the task force is to be in contact with U.S. citizens during hostilities, offer public messaging and conduct diplomacy.Mehdi Rahmati, a conservative political analyst in Tehran, said, “There is now a real chance of a regional war,” he said. “Our allies are still capable. Hezbollah has missile and drone capacities and the Houthis are very capable.” He also numbered an Iraqi miltiia among Iran’s alliesSenator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, criticized the Israeli strikes. “Israel’s alarming decision to launch airstrikes on Iran is a reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence,” he said. “These strikes threaten not only the lives of innocent civilians, but the stability of the entire Middle East.”
