The protests in Iran have seemingly abated over the past few weeks and no longer grab international attention. The regime in Tehran has now been able to refocus its energies back to external interests and to its depraved geostrategic plans. From Ukraine to the Arabian Sea, Iran continues to be on the march – a march that Israel must halt once and for all.
Bloomberg news recently reported that the IAEA has discovered uranium enriched to just shy of 90% in Iran, with 90% being a weapons-grade product. Why and under what circumstances this level of enriched uranium has been detected is still not completely clear.
In reality, these factors are less important than the basic understanding sharpened by this discovery, namely that Iran, when it so chooses, can and will enrich uranium to weapons grade. Israel has made this point clear time and again and has emphasized that anemic and badly negotiated nuclear deals that emphasize compromise and goodlwill over efficaciousness and long-term results would only pave a path to legitimacy for such Iranian activity.
Thankfully, there has been no renewal of substantive negotiations on the matter of a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or some iteration of it. Unscrupulously, that has been due to recent significant Iranian support for Russia rather than its genocidal nuclear ambitions or its decades-long tyrannical and murderous policies and actions throughout the Middle East and the world.
The Iranians, in return for the unmanned aerial vehicle platforms and expertise they have provided the Russians for use against Ukraine, are preparing to receive advanced Sukhoi SU-35 model fighter jets. The Iranians have also been so bold as to release footage earlier this month of an at-least partly-subterranean military base dubbed Eagle 44. Purportedly one of several such installations in Iran, the base would most likely house at least some of the SU-35s.
Aircraft such as these and the hardened infrastructure to support and maintain them are a major upgrade to Iran’s existing manned and unmanned aerial capabilities, as the Iranians have also previously released footage of supposed underground facilities that can house and launch both drones and ballistic missiles.
Leveraging every opportunity
The Iranians are leveraging every opportunity to acquire strategic military capabilities and hardware that were previously out of their reach. This is nothing new but with the growing give-and-take dynamic, they have succeeded in cultivating with Moscow these opportunities are growing more dangerous.
Iran wants to improve its aerial intercept and warfare capabilities, including not only fighter jets but with new and/or upgraded surface-to-air missiles and radar systems. They want to do this as quickly and comprehensively as possible, as Iranian strategists know that these capabilities go hand-in-hand with entrenching and preserving Iran’s nuclear program as it moves it along to the point of no return.
They also seek to forwardly deploy such systems as close to Israel as possible. Semi-mysterious strikes on targets throughout Syria and Iraq often attributed to Israel as part of its “war between wars” campaign, not only damage and destroy such assets but serve to expose their very presence and the campaign to place them far outside Iran’s borders.
FORTIFIED SUBTERRANEAN conventional military bases combined with subterranean nuclear installations, replicated throughout Iranian territory and perhaps at some point into Syria, Iraq or beyond (underground Iranian or Iranian affiliated installations, that are perhaps not as sophisticated or large as the ones in Iran proper, have already been rumored to exist outside Iran, such as on the Iraq-Syria border), are integral to Iran’s continued strategy of developing the power and position necessary to establish its neo-Persian empire.
From almost the moment Iran’s nuclear ambitions became a real and present danger to Israel many years ago, according to both foreign reports as well as official statements from Israel over the years, varying degrees of action have been taken by Israel to degrade and dismantle the capabilities behind those ambitions. Personnel key to Iran’s nuclear and advanced weapons programs, who would also be integral to restarting a stalled or destroyed nuclear program, have been eliminated. Critical manufacturing, supply chain and logistical capabilities and assets have also been degraded and compromised.
These actions would affect attempts to re-establish a viable program, as well, if it were hit with a devastating overt kinetic strike. In financial terms – with Iran’s economy battered by sanctions, corruption, COVID and intermittent civil unrest – a nuclear program that already has had billions upon billions of dollars invested in it and then would have that investment erased in a direct comprehensive strike would be much harder to finance.
Iran’s flirtation with fully enriched uranium to weapons grade, along with other possible advances not known to the public, signals to Israel that time is continuing to run out in order to stop Iran from reaching a nuclear point of no return. Iran’s continued brazen attacks on Israeli-affiliated shipping in the waters surrounding the Arabian Peninsula illustrates Iran’s willingness to further escalate tensions.
The Iranian leadership and military establishment have also not ceased in their attempts to flood Syria and Lebanon with men and materials. They have allegedly attempted to take advantage of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria as a cover to try and get mass shipments of weapons and military systems into Syria masqueraded as critical humanitarian aid. This goes hand in hand with Iran’s renewed effort to turn the Israeli-Syrian frontier around the Golan Heights into a second south Lebanon.
All this and more points to an Iranian intransigence and apocalyptic zeal to attack and eventually attempt to destroy Israel at a time when they feel powerful enough and prepared enough to do so. This is a cornerstone of their vision for a Mahdist neo-Persian empire and barring a radical change from within Iran itself this depraved vision will not change.
The events of just the last few days make clear that sooner rather than later Israel will have to exploit the damage it has already inflicted on Iran’s plans, destroy Iran’s military nuclear program and stop the ayatollahs dead in their tracks, once and for all.
The writer is an Israeli hi-tech entrepreneur and a member of the Israel Leadership Forum. He is involved with various Israel advocacy causes, including working with Christian Zionist and pro-Israel Noahide groups.