US personnel withdrawal is not a threat, Iranian official tells Press TV
US military dependents leaving the region does not constitute a threat, a senior Iranian security official told Iran's Press TV on Thursday, amid concerns that evacuation of non-essential personnel may be the preamble to regional escalation.
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Asharq Al-Awsat
39 minutes ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Report: Israel Used Long-Planned Subterfuge in Attack on Iranian Nuclear Targets
Israel sent Mossad commandos deep into Iran to destroy Iranian weapons systems during Israel's attack on nuclear and military targets, an Israeli security source said, while another official said Israel used a ploy to suggest the strike was not imminent. The Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the clandestine nature of the operations, described secret and lengthy preparations that went into an attack that sent oil prices sharply higher on fears of regional escalation. Reuters could not independently verify the accounts. Iranian officials who spoke to Reuters shortly before the attack had been dismissive about any imminent action and repeatedly said talk of strikes was just "psychological pressure" to influence US-Iranian nuclear negotiations that were due on Sunday. Iran has not given a detailed account of what its Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called "unlawful and cowardly attacks", but it has promised a harsh response. Iran's mission at the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Israel's covert operation and other subterfuge related to the attacks. Ahead of the strike, Israel gave the impression its focus was still on US diplomacy towards a nuclear deal with Iran, briefing journalists that its spy chief would go to Washington before the next negotiations. Instead, Israel said it sent 200 warplanes to conduct a wave of air strikes across Iran before dawn on Friday, hitting nuclear facilities and missile factories, and killing military commanders and nuclear scientists, in a culmination of its efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran says its nuclear program is purely civilian. The Israeli security source said Israel's military and Mossad had worked for years on the intelligence needed for the strikes, which killed the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps among others. The security source said Mossad commandos had covertly deployed weapons across Iran, including explosive drones that were launched at a surface-to-surface missile base near Tehran. The Mossad commandos also fired precision-guided weapons systems at Iranian surface-to-air missile systems as the Israeli attack got underway, reducing the threat to Israeli warplanes. A grainy black and white video distributed by Mossad showed what it said were the organization's operational force - two camouflaged figures crouched in what looks like desert terrain, deploying the precision weapons system meant to destroy Iran's air defense systems. Some of the operation's components would have taken years to be put together, said Sima Shine, a former chief Mossad analyst and now a researcher at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). The decision to strike Iran was made on Monday, the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump spoke by phone, when Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and military chief Eyal Zamir decided the operation would begin on Friday, said a second source, an Israeli defense official. Their discussion was held after the conversation between Trump and Netanyahu, a third official, close to Netanyahu, said. PRESS BRIEFINGS The final green light was given by Netanyahu's security cabinet, which convened on Thursday night. In the days leading up to the strikes, Israel played out a ploy to create the impression an attack was not imminent, according to a fourth source, also an Israeli official. False reports suggesting that a rift between Israel and the United States had emerged during Netanyahu and Trump's phone call on Monday were not denied, the fourth source said. A press release about a visit by Katz, Zamir and the head of Israel's Air Force Tomer Bar to an air force base mentioned Gaza, Yemen and Lebanon, but not Iran. The fourth source said that the ruse included misleading information given in press briefings. As the attack unfolded in the early hours of Friday, some Israeli journalists pointed to one such briefing, according to which Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad Head David Barnea were to be sent to Washington ahead of the next round of nuclear talks on Sunday. Dermer later appeared seated with Netanyahu at Israel's defense headquarters bunker in Tel Aviv, in a video distributed by the prime minister's office. A fifth, military source said that Israel had been able to surprise Iran but since the operation was not over, there could be "difficult days" ahead. Iran, which fired ballistic missiles at Israel when they traded blows last year, has promised "harsh punishment" in response to the attack. Israel said it had intercepted many of the 100 drones launched towards Israeli territory in retaliation.
Asharq Al-Awsat
an hour ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Pizza Delivery Monitor Alerts to Secret Israel Attack
The timing of Israel's plan to attack Iran was top secret. But Washington pizza delivery trackers guessed something was up before the first bombs fell. About an hour before Iranian state TV first reported loud explosions in Tehran, pizza orders around the Pentagon went through the roof, according to a viral X account claiming to offer "hot intel" on "late-night activity spikes" at the US military headquarters. "As of 6:59 pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity," the account "Pentagon Pizza Report" posted on Thursday. While far from scientific, the Pentagon pizza theory "is not something the internet just made up," The Takeout, an online site covering restaurants and food trends, noted earlier this year. Pentagon-adjacent pizza joints also got much busier than usual during Israel's 2024 missile strike on Iran, it said, as there are "a multitude of fast-food restaurants in the Pentagon complex, but no pizza places." Pizza deliveries to the Pentagon reportedly doubled right before the US invasion of Panama in December 1989 and surged again before Operation Desert Storm in 1991. President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal he was fully aware in advance of the bombing campaign, which Israel says is needed to end Iran's nuclear program. "We know what's going on." For the rest of Americans, pepperoni pie activity was not the only way to tell something was about to happen. Washington had already announced it was moving some diplomats and their families out of the Middle East on Wednesday. And close to an hour before Israel unleashed its firepower on Iran, the US ambassador in Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee, sent out a rather revealing X post: "At our embassy in Jerusalem and closely monitoring the situation. We will remain here all night. 'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!'"
Asharq Al-Awsat
an hour ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israeli Attack Exposed Iran's Military 'Vulnerability', Say Analysts
Israel's strikes on archfoe on Iran Friday exposed severe weaknesses for Tehran that have hampered its ability to respond militarily, analysts said. Israel said it hit 100 targets including Iranian nuclear and military sites in the attacks, killing senior figures, among them the armed forces' chief and top nuclear scientists. Supreme leader Ali Khamenei warned Israel it faces a "bitter and painful" fate over the attacks, but analysts say the country's options are limited. "This is an intelligence defeat of existential proportions for Iran," said Ali Fathollah-Nejad, director of the Berlin-based Center for Middle East and Global Order (CMEG) think tank. "It exposes the vital vulnerability of the regime's military and security apparatus and its key infrastructures, including nuclear, as well as its top political and military leadership," he told AFP. "All this is meant, inter alia, to cripple Tehran's command and counter-strike capacities." The United States and other Western countries, along with Israel, accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon. Tehran denies that, but has gradually broken away from its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers, after the United States pulled out of it. The landmark accord provided Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its atomic program, but it fell apart after President Donald Trump halted US participation in 2018, during his first term. Western nations in recent days accused Tehran of deliberately escalating its nuclear program, despite several rounds of US-Iran talks for a new accord. Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said Thursday it would "significantly" increase production of enriched uranium, after the UN's nuclear watchdog found Tehran in breach of its obligations. Israel has previously carried out attacks in Iran, including against military targets in October last year. But Friday's attacks were unprecedented. "The Israel campaign is sweeping in scope and sophistication," said Ali Vaez, of the International Crisis Group. "We may still only be in the early stages of a prolonged operation that continues to expand, disrupting Iran's ability to either formulate or execute a response." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his country's military operation would "continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat". Friday's strikes killed Iran's highest-ranking military officer, armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, and the head of the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, Iranian media reported. A senior advisor to Khamenei was also wounded, state television said. Clement Therme, of the Sorbonne University, said that "to retaliate, the regime seems to be in a bind". "Either it targets US bases in the region and jeopardizes its future, or it targets Israel, but we see that its military capabilities are limited," he said. The Israeli military said Iran launched around 100 drones against it, but its air defenses intercepted "most" of them outside Israeli territory. Israel, which relies on US diplomatic and military support, carried out the attack despite Trump's public urging for it to give time for diplomacy. Trump's Middle East pointman Steve Witkoff had been set to hold a sixth round of talks with Iran on Sunday in Oman. A Western diplomat earlier this year described Iran's economy as "cataclysmic", saying the country had "a gigantic need for the lifting of sanctions, reforms, a cleanup of the banking system, foreign investments". Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the strikes were "designed to kill President Trump's chances of striking a deal to contain the Iranian nuclear program". "It is highly unlikely that in these conditions, Iran will proceed with the Omani-mediated talks scheduled for Sunday," she added. But, after the strikes, a US official said Washington still hoped the Sunday talks would go ahead. Trump urged Iran to "make a deal, before there is nothing left", warning that otherwise there will be more "death and destruction". Vaez warned the strategy may not work. "Rather than prompt Iranian concessions it could also lead to a doubling down by Tehran," he said. "Setbacks could lead Iran to reconstitute their operations with a more determined effort to obtain a nuclear deterrent."
