US Wants To Get Back With Iran: Israel's Chief Of Military Staff Issues Warning, Prepares IDF Troops

Israel's Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi. (Wikimedia Commons/IDF Spokesperson's Unit photographer)

JAKARTA - Israel's military chief of staff (IDF) Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi has again warned US officials regarding plans to return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Kochavi himself is currently in Washington DC, United States, to discuss the threat posed by Tehran's nuclear program.

"The Chief of General Staff stressed the shortcomings of the current nuclear agreement, which would allow Iran to make significant progress with regard to centrifuges, as well as substantially increase the amount and quality of enriched material over the next few years, also stressing the lack of oversight in terms of nuclear proliferation," he said. said the IDF Spokesperson's Unit in a statement, citing The Jerusalem Post Tuesday, June 23.

"The Israeli military chief of staff explained the threat created by returning to the original nuclear agreement, stressing all measures must be taken to prevent Iran from achieving military nuclear capability," the statement added.

This is not the first time Kochavi has warned the US about returning to the 2015 Nuclear Deal. Last January, he made a similar warning, directing the IDF to prepare a new operational plan to strike Iran, in order to halt its nuclear program if necessary.

"Iran can decide it wants to develop a bomb, either secretly or in a provocative way. Based on this basic analysis, I have ordered the IDF to prepare a number of operational plans, in addition to the existing ones. next year," Kohavi said in a January speech at the Institute for National Security Studies think tank's annual conference.

"Of course the government will decide whether they should be used. But these plans have to be on the table, exist, and be trained."

Israeli army illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Israel Defense Forces)

Kohavi is in the US on a four-day visit and held meetings with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, head of US Central Command General Kenneth McKenzie, and head of US Special Operations Command (US SOCOM) General Richard. Clark.

On Tuesday, he held a series of meetings with McKenzie, Clark, and other senior CENTCOM officers at command headquarters in Tampa, Florida. Kohavi also took part in a panel chaired by McKenzie and conducted a series of intelligence and operational reviews.

The officers discussed common security challenges in the region, including issues related to the threat posed by Iran's nuclear project, Tehran's efforts to take root in the Middle East, Hezbollah's efforts to strengthen itself, and the consequences of the Lebanese terror group's precision missile project.

"The IDF's operational cooperation with the US military is unprecedented in its scope and has reached the pinnacle of quality, such as with advanced weapons systems, ballistic missiles, and the work being done to combat terror financing," Kochavi said.

"The current operational cooperation and planned enhancements agreed during the visit testify to the shared commitment between CENTCOM and the IDF and will enable them to deal with various challenges more effectively," he said.

His visit to Washington and Tampa was originally scheduled to take place in April, but was postponed due to fighting with Hamas and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip.