Shared by Tahir Mahmood
Iran is unlikely to unleash a war in response to a military strike on its nuclear facilities, Strategic Affairs and Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said, estimating that possible retaliation would include not more than “two or three days of missile fire” against Israel and/or Western targets in the region, causing “very limited damage.”
Speaking to The Times of Israel earlier this week, Steinitz predicted that Iran’s new President Hasan Rouhani will offer minor goodwill steps to signal his willingness to compromise on the nuclear question, which he will follow up with demands to ease the sanctions while the regime continues to inch toward weapons capability. Steinitz urged the international community not to be fooled by Rouhani’s seemingly moderate rhetoric, and called instead for an internationally endorsed deadline that, if crossed, would be followed by the destruction of the country’s military facilities.
In the second part of an extensive interview conducted in his Jerusalem office (read part 1), Steinitz, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he was not sure whether the United States was currently willing to attack the Iranian nuclear facilities. If so ordered, the American army is capable of “relatively easily, or at least quickly and efficiently,” taking out those facilities, the minister said.