Israel President Herzog
Benny Doutsh/for NPR
conceal caption
toggle caption
Benny Doutsh/for NPR
JERUSALEM — Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has instructed NPR that his nation would welcome worldwide assist in its warfare to eradicate Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel says was on the brink of constructing atomic weapons.
The president – who holds a largely ceremonial position in Israel – spoke to NPR in his official residence in Jerusalem as President Trump was nonetheless weighing whether or not to intervene, doubtlessly authorizing B-2 bombers with bunker busting bombs to take out Iran’s most closely fortified nuclear websites – weapons which Israel doesn’t possess.
Trump had earlier demanded an “unconditional surrender” from Iran, which he stated meant: “I’ve had it. Okay, I’ve had it. I give up. No more. Then we go blow up all the, you know, all the nuclear stuff that’s all over the place there.”
Whereas Israel has not publicly referred to as on the U.S. to hitch its offensive in opposition to Iran, Herzog stated intervention from “nations” will surely be welcomed.
“There’s a bigger picture here that the world and the American people should understand,” he stated, talking simply hours earlier than Iran fired one other missile barrage at Israel, which it has achieved repeatedly since Israel started attacking Iran final Friday.
“We have to stop this empire of evil – No more! – and tell them, get the goddamn nukes out of your hands. And start behaving in a decent way and not be the rogue state. You are all over the world. It’s impossible,” Herzog stated.
Iran has insisted its enrichment program is just for civilian functions, although specialists – together with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA – say it has enriched uranium to ranges the place it may very well be poised to interrupt out and produce a number of warheads.
Israel shared intelligence with the U.S. earlier than attacking Iran, Herzog stated
Herzog stated that Israel has planning this assault for months, however the determination to hold it out was taken just a few days in the past, after Israel shared with the U.S. intelligence that Herzog stated confirmed Iran’s plans to interrupt out and produce a nuclear weapon.
“I don’t say that we got the approval from the United States, nor did we cooperate, but we’ve exposed to the Americans the hard intelligence and evidence that we have,” he stated – the primary time an Israeli chief has spoken about sharing such intelligence with the U.S. The Israeli president stated the U.S. knew for days that Israel was contemplating a strike on Iran.
An individual aware of the matter instructed NPR on situation of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic that Israeli officers aren’t asking the U.S. to hitch the warfare however that they’d be blissful for the US to actively take part, and imagine the U.S. will actually step in militarily.
That intervention may show very important to Israel’s warfare goals: solely the U.S. army has the 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs that would presumably penetrate the defenses of Iran’s Fordow nuclear website, which is construct into the facet of a mountain, and it is usually solely the U.S. that possesses the plane highly effective sufficient to ship them.
Israel says its air strikes, which started final Friday, have established dominance of the skies over Tehran and western Iran, the place the principle nuclear services are situated. Israel and the IAEA assess that its assaults have severely broken different websites, corresponding to Natanz, however Fordow is the toughest to destroy.
Herzog additionally stated that the warfare may weaken Iran’s regime a lot that it might even fall – a collapse he stated may change the face of the area, and will, in his opinion, result in an finish of the warfare in Gaza, the place Israel has been preventing Hamas since 2023, when the Iran-backed Palestinian militants launched a shock assault on southern Israel.
Nonetheless, some regional safety analysts warn {that a} U.S intervention may widen the battle and provoke Iranian strikes on U.S. army bases within the Gulf, in addition to oil infrastructure within the Gulf, which may ship shockwaves by means of world markets.
