Iran lauds 'new method' as missiles hit Israel's Tel Aviv, Haifa
Iranian missiles struck Israel's Tel Aviv and the port city of Haifa before dawn on Monday, destroying homes and fuelling concerns among world leaders at this week's G7 meeting that the confrontation could lead to a broader regional conflict.
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First Post
33 minutes ago
- First Post
Operation Rising Lion: How Israel's proactive approach should shape Bharat's strategic thinking
Israel's Operation Rising Lion has been an audacious gambit that has so far been successful for the Netanyahu government. More than 20 Iranian military commanders, including Army chief Mohammed Bagheri, have been killed, and several key military assets and nuclear sites destroyed, in the biggest direct conflict between the two nations that started with Tel Aviv's military operation on Friday. Nine scientists working on Iran's nuclear programme too have reportedly been killed. Iran's air defence systems, military airbases and parts of their key nuclear sites were decimated by Israel's military exercise. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD It is still too early to predict the contour of the conflict, but at this point of time it is apparent that Israel has gained a definite advantage over its arch-rival with its timely and precise targeting. What gives Tel Aviv an edge is its undiminished sense of shatrubodh, which, when mixed with its never-give-up attitude and incessant, long-term planning, helps Israel achieve results, historic and unprecedented. Israel's success mantra is simple: Prepare for war in the time of peace. Use that 'free time' to your advantage. In recent memory, the only time Israel goofed up—and goofed up badly—was on October 7, 2023, when more than 1,000 Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel and went on a killing spree, murdering 1,200 men, women and children and abducting another 250 people. This aberration apart, this tiny nation of less than one crore people has had splendid successes. In the past year and a half, after the October 7 fiasco, it has emasculated Hamas after flattening Gaza and decapitated the Hezbollah leadership with a never-seen-before usage of civilian technology for military purposes. Coming back to Operation Rising Lion, it has its genesis in Mossad pulling off 'one of the most spectacular exploits in the entire history of espionage on the eve of January 31, 2018', as authors Yonah Jeremy Bob and Ilan Evyatar write in their 2024 book Target Tehran. 'After months of meticulous planning, endless hours of sophisticated electronic surveillance, and the risky infiltration of Israeli agents into Iran, the Mossad team broke into the secret warehouse where Iran's nuclear archive, containing the full record of its efforts to become a nuclear weapons power, was kept,' write the authors. Very little is known in the public about Mossad's 2018 operation, but Target Tehran explains how meticulously planned this exercise was. The Israeli team had 'exactly six and a half hours to find the vast amount of material they needed, load it onto trucks, and make their escape, or they would be discovered, and the mission, with all its months of meticulous planning—data analysis, risky intelligence gathering by agents infiltrated into Iran, and more—would come to naught, and two dozen lives could be lost to the tender mercies of Iranian justice'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The 2018 operation was a grand success. The revelations of the archive's contents proved that Iran had been lying for years about its nuclear programme, hiding its true military nature by claiming it was only for civilian use. This gave Donald Trump, who was then the US President, an excuse to withdraw the US from the Iran nuclear deal signed with much fanfare in 2015. Israel was well aware that these measures could only delay the nuclear inevitable. The next step would be to give a physical body blow to the project, but in between came the Biden administration. Tel Aviv used this time to strengthen itself, and when Trump 2.0 was inaugurated, the Israeli leadership knew its time had come. Israel is bound by what's famously called the Samson Option, a term named after the Biblical figure who killed himself and thousands of Israel's enemies by bringing down the pillars of the Gazan temple where he was held captive. Given the fact that Israel lacks significant landmass, it has made nuclear weapons the centrepiece of its strategic deterrence, thus conveying to its adversaries in no uncertain terms that it would be willing to cross the nuclear threshold in the event of an existential threat. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A geographically bigger country like Bharat may think it's not bound by the Samson Option, but given the revolutionary changes taking place in arms and armament, and of course, modern warfare, the difference seems to be mitigating between a big and a small nation. Bharat needs to realise that the era belongs to those who pursue a proactive rather than a reactive policy. Of course, the action has to be a well-calibrated, responsible one, but in today's era, to wait for the act to take place can be too devastating to recover. This should be the next evolutionary stage of Bharat's military tactics. You don't wait. You pre-empt. You ensure that the enemy is neutralised well before it is ready with its first move. Today, Bharat has every reason to rejoice the stupendous success of Operation Sindoor, but, taking a cue from the dear friend Israel, Bharat should start preparing for the worst. The enemy is now well aware of the giant leap taken by Bharat on the military front and is preparing itself accordingly. This is the time for the preparation of Operation Sindoor 2.0. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As for Israel's Operation Rising Lion, Bharat should give silent support. Though there will be many bleeding-heart commentators in the subcontinent who would bemoan the attack on Iran, the fact of the matter is that the decline of the current Iranian dispensation will weaken the Islamist axis that invariably targets Bharat and its geostrategic interests. There is no denying that Bharat has maintained good relations with Iran, but it has been tactical in nature. Israel, on the other hand, is an all-weather friend. A weakened Tehran is also bad news for Islamabad. Pakistan becomes much less important, geostrategically, for the US. The idea that Pakistan has ever been a reliable supporter of the US is a perception Americans have created to deceive themselves; in reality, Pakistan has harmed US interests far more than it has forwarded them. If Operation Rising Lion is effective in considerably weakening the current Iranian dispensation, if not managing the regime change, Pakistan would believe that it is now next in the line of the Israeli fire. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD One hopes the leadership of Bharat takes adequate lessons from Operation Rising Lion. The country needs to change. It has to change from being a reactive to an assertive power, but without compromising its ethical, moral compass. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
Time of India
38 minutes ago
- Time of India
Tehran fires 100 missiles at Tel Aviv; nuclear tensions rise
Iranian missiles struck Israel's Tel Aviv and the port city of Haifa before dawn on Monday, killing at least eight people and destroying homes, prompting Israel's defence minister to warn that Tehran residents would "pay the price and soon". Iran said its parliament was preparing a bill to leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), adding that Tehran remains opposed to developing weapons of mass destruction. Passing the bill could take several weeks. Israel is presumed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies it. It is the only Middle East state that has not signed the NPT. Israel's military, which has gutted Iran's nuclear and military leadership with airstrikes, said on Monday it had killed four senior intelligence officials, including the head of the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence unit. Show more Show less
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Business Standard
39 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Diplomacy with Iran remains damaged, not dead, after Israeli strikes
If war is diplomacy by other means, diplomacy is never finished. While Israel and Iran are in the midst of what could be an extended war that could spread, the possibility of renewed talks to deal with Iran's expanding nuclear program should not be discounted. Negotiations are on hold while the war continues, and the future of diplomacy is far from clear. Iran will feel compelled to respond to Israel, and the Israeli campaign could last for days or weeks. For now Washington does not appear to be doing anything to press both sides to stop the violence and start talking again. But the Iranians say they still want a deal, as does President Trump. The shape of future talks will inevitably depend on when and how the fighting stops. 'We are prepared for any agreement aimed at ensuring Iran does not pursue nuclear weapons,' the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told foreign diplomats in Tehran on Sunday. But his country would not accept any deal that 'deprives Iran of its nuclear rights,' he added, including the right to enrich uranium, albeit at low levels that can be used for civilian purposes. Araghchi said Israel did not attack to pre-empt Iran's race toward a bomb, which Iran denies trying to develop, but to derail negotiations on a deal that Netanyahu opposes. The attacks are 'an attempt to undermine diplomacy and derail negotiations,' he continued, a view shared by various Western analysts. 'It is entirely clear that the Israeli regime does not want any agreement on the nuclear issue,' he said. 'It does not want negotiations and does not seek diplomacy.' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has argued that the attack on Iran was to stop Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon, even as a sixth round of talks to prevent that very outcome was scheduled between the United States and Iran. While Israel argues that it had to strike now to prevent an Iranian race to bomb, American and European judgments were that Iran was still many months away from building a bomb and has not yet decided to do so. Netanyahu believes that a deal that would allow Iran to enrich uranium would mean a nuclear-armed Iran in the future, and he has been bent on preventing that outcome. He has apparently judged that a US-Iran deal would have kept him from his goal of destroying Iran's nuclear program, and, perhaps, he hopes, bringing about the fall of the Islamic Republic. But Israel is considered highly unlikely to meet the goal of destroying Iran's nuclear program without active American involvement, which Trump has so far resisted. The president continues to say that he wants negotiations to succeed. He seems to believe that the attack will bring Iran back to the table in a weaker and more conciliatory position, ready to accept his latest demand that it halt all enrichment of uranium. But Iran insists that it has the right to enrich for civilian uses under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Trump clearly sees the war as a form of diplomacy. On Friday, he wrote: 'Two months ago I gave Iran a 60-day ultimatum to 'make a deal.' They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn't get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!' Early on Sunday, Trump warned Iran against attacking American forces in a message on Truth Social. 'However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict,' he said. Whether Israel would accept such a deal, if Iran is allowed to enrich at all, is an open question. At the same time, Trump, who has said he knew about the Israeli attack beforehand, has done nothing in public to restrain the Israelis. When Washington announced last week that the talks would continue on Sunday, it is not clear whether it knew when Israel would attack, but the Iranians are convinced that Washington was complicit in trying to fool them into believing that any Israeli attack would come afterward. A quick deal now that would give up enrichment would be seen as a surrender, said Vali Nasr, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who served in the State Department during the Obama administration. That could make the Iranian government more vulnerable at home. 'They won't give up enrichment, not this easily,' he said. 'They're not going to surrender.' For now negotiations with Iran are on hold, said Robert Malley, a former US official who negotiated with Iran on the nuclear issue under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. But their future shape and timing will depend on the length of the Israeli attack and what it achieves. 'When Iran feels comfortable to come back to the table with the United States, which it believes is deeply complicit with the attack, and in what position Iran comes back depends on how significantly Israel has degraded its nuclear program,' he said. For now, Washington is backing the Israeli operations, but 'at some point, better sooner than later, they will try to exercise some restraint' to limit the conflict, Malley said. Trump still seems eager to get a deal and avoid being dragged into the war. Karin von Hippel, a former State Department official and former director of RUSI, the London-based defense research group, agrees. 'We'll get back to the table eventually but at what cost to Israel and the region?' she said. 'The challenge is going to be that the Iranians want a face-saving way to get back to the table,' while Trump prefers 'to back people to the edge and get them to capitulate.' Unless the Iranian government collapses — or Israel tries to kill the political and clerical leadership of Iran, as it did with Hezbollah — any deal is likely to be very similar to the original 2015 nuclear pact negotiated under President Barack Obama, and which Trump, in his first term, abandoned in 2018. 'It will probably be a very similar deal as the one with Obama, but Trump will want to put his own spin on it,' Ms. von Hippel said. 'Trump can declare victory no matter what. And if the deal has enough safeguards on Iran he can get away with it,' she said, even if some Republicans and Israel criticize it for not ending Iran's enrichment altogether. Trump has miscalculated in thinking Israel's attack would force Iran to accept a deal based on zero enrichment, said Rajan Menon, professor emeritus of international relations at the City College of New York, in an email post and an article in The New Statesman. Trump is unlikely to miscalculate again and join Israel's war, but 'this much is certain: Netanyahu wanted to scuttle the US-Iran negotiation, and he has succeeded,' Menon said, at least for now. But Iran clearly wants to come back to negotiations, since a deal is still the best protection it has from continuing or subsequent Israeli attacks on a country that has lost most of its own air defenses and has limited ways of striking Israeli territory. Even if the government is not about to fall, it is weakened and at profound risk, for the first time since Iraq and Saddam Hussein invaded in 1980, said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert and director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution. A pathway to a deal is unclear for now, but the Iranians must still consider diplomacy as 'the best way to extricate themselves from what is an existential crisis,' she said. There will inevitably be a sharp debate inside the Iranian regime about whether to accept a diplomatic solution out of weakness or to continue to try to strike back and even race for a nuclear weapon, Malley said. The alternatives, of course, include widening the war by damaging regional energy assets of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, closing the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, assaulting institutions and even synagogues abroad or attacking American troops and interests in the region. But there is probably no surer way of bringing the United States into the war, which Netanyahu deeply desires. For their part, the Europeans who were instrumental in the 2015 nuclear deal, and who have been sidelined by Trump, say they are ready to hold talks with Iran on its nuclear program. 'I hope that's still possible,' the German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, said late Saturday in Oman. 'Germany, together with France and Britain, are ready,' he told the German broadcaster ARD. Iran must never have a nuclear weapon, he said, but other than wanting the violence to end, he indicated no European move to pressure either side to desist. 'There's a shared expectation that within the next week, a serious attempt must be made on both sides to interrupt the spiral of violence,' he said.
