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“We believe Israel has taken the decision to attack following the developments in the Middle East over the last several months,” a senior European diplomat said.
By YONAH JEREMY BOB JANUARY 20, 2025 09:54 Updated: JANUARY 20, 2025 09:55
An Iranian missile system is displayed next to a banner with a picture of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during Iranian defence week, in a street in Tehran, Iran, September 24, 2024.
(photo credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)
A senior European diplomat said that Israel has already decided it will attack Iran's nuclear sites, implying such an attack was not imminent, but also not in the distant future, Al Arabiya reported over the weekend.
“We believe Israel has taken the decision to attack following the developments in the Middle East over the last several months,” one senior European diplomat said according to the report.
Next, the report said that the diplomat did not say the attack was believed to be imminent but said several European countries have opened talks with the incoming Trump administration to check if there is still a chance to use diplomacy or other tools to block Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
According to the report, European diplomats' activity on the issue has spiked given their fears that the Trump administration will be far more aggressive with the Islamic Republic.
England, France and Germany (the E-3) held talks with Iran last week to try to gauge the ayatollahs' readiness for diplomacy and in anticipation of new moves by Trump.
'Extreme concern'
In December, the E-3 expressed “extreme concern” over Iran’s enrichment capacity with France calling the uranium enrichment close to the “point of no return.”
On Friday, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch said the US would return to “President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran and safeguard American national security.”
Israeli officials, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Defense Minister Israel Katz, to top IDF officials, have made numerous statements in recent months indicating a greater real readiness to attack Iran's nuclear sites.
Those statements came after Israel destroyed most of Iran's advanced air defense systems on October 26 in retaliation for a second direct massive ballistic missile attack by Tehran on the Jewish state on October 1.
Most of the Israeli statements have drawn attention to the idea that Iran's nuclear sites are now close to defenseless, or the most vulnerable to an Israeli strike in years that they have been.
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In fact, given those statements, what was new about the European official's statement to Al Arabiya was less the idea of an Israeli attack, but the idea that it had actually been decided, and also the idea that the Trump administration is seriously weighing being involved.
According to the report, the Trump administration is considering being involved or giving Israel a green light.
In public statements, Trump has refused to rule out military action.
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