JERUSALEM: Israel attacked Iran’s capital early Friday in strikes that targeted the country’s nuclear program and raised the potential for an all-out war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries. It appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq.
Multiple sites around the country were hit, and black smoke was seen rising from the nation’s main nuclear enrichment facility.
The leader of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was confirmed dead, Iranian state television reported, a development that would be a body blow to Tehran’s governing theocracy and an immediate escalation of the nations’ long-simmering conflict. The report offered few details about what happened to Gen. Hossein Salami but said that another top Guard official, as well as two nuclear scientists, were also feared dead.
The strikes, which came amid simmering tensions over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, appeared certain to lead to a reprisal that Israel warned could target its own civilian population. In Washington, the Trump administration, which had cautioned Israel against an attack during continued negotiations over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, said that it had not been involved and warned against any retaliation targeting US interests or personnel.
Israeli leaders cast the preemptive assault as a fight for the nation’s survival and necessary to head off what they described as an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs, though it remains unclear how close the country is to achieving that or whether it had actually had been planning a strike.
“It could be a year. It could be within a few months,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he vowed to pursue the attack for as long as necessary to “remove this threat.”
“This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival,” he said.
For Netanyahu, the operation distracts attention from Israel’s ongoing and increasingly unpopular war in Gaza, which is now over 20 months old. There is a broad consensus in the Israeli public that Iran is a major threat, and Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a staunch critic of Netanyahu, offered his “full support” for the mission against Iran. But if Iranian reprisals cause heavy Israeli casualties or major disruptions to daily life, Netanyahu could see public opinion quickly shift.
Multiple sites in the Iranian capital were hit in the attack, which Netanyahu said targeted both nuclear and military sites. Also targeted were officials leading Iran’s nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal. It wasn’t clear how bad the damage was at Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz.
The strike on Iran pushed the Israeli military to its limits, requiring the use of aging air-to-air refuelers to get its fighter jets close enough to attack. It wasn’t immediately clear if Israeli jets entered Iranian airspace or just fired so-called “standoff missiles” over another country. People in Iraq heard fighter jets overhead at the time of the attack. Israel previously attacked Iran from over the border in Iraq.
The potential for an attack had been apparent for weeks. President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he did not believe an attack was imminent but also acknowledged that it “could very well happen.” As tensions rose, the US pulled some diplomats from Iraq’s capital and offered voluntary evacuations for the families of US troops in the wider Middle East.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel took “unilateral action against Iran” and that Israel advised the US that it believed the strikes were necessary for its self-defense.
“We are not involved in strikes against Iran, and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a statement released by the White House.
Trump is scheduled to attend a meeting of his National Security Council on Friday in the White House Situation Room, were he is expected to discuss the conflict with top advisers. It is not clear if he plans to make a public remarks on the strikes in Iran.
Israel has long been determined to thwart Iran’s nuclear potential.
Meanwhile, the Board of Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency for the first time in 20 years on Thursday censured Iran over its refusal to work with its inspectors. Iran immediately announced it would establish a third enrichment site in the country and swap out some centrifuges for more-advanced ones.
Even so, there are multiple assessments on how many nuclear weapons it could conceivably build, should it choose to do so. Iran would need months to assemble, test and field any weapon, which it so far has said it has no desire to do. US intelligence agencies also assess Iran does not have a weapons program at this time.
In a sign of the far-reaching implications of the emerging conflict, Israel’s main airport was closed and benchmark Brent crude spiked on news of the attack, rising nearly 8 percent. Both Iran and Israel closed their airspace.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that in the aftermath of the strikes, “missile and drone attacks against Israel and its civilian population are expected immediately.”
“It is essential to listen to instructions from the home front command and authorities to stay in protected areas,” he said in a statement.
As the explosions in Tehran started, Trump was on the lawn of the White House mingling with members of Congress. It was unclear if he had been informed, but the president continued shaking hands and posing for pictures for several minutes.
Trump earlier said he urged Netanyahu to hold off on any action while the administration negotiated with Iran.
“As long as I think there is a (chance for an) agreement, I don’t want them going in because I think it would blow it,” Trump told reporters.