IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi said Sunday evening that a military option against Iran's nuclear program was a "moral imperative."
"Blocking Iran from nuclearization through diplomacy is the preferred way, but history has proven many times that diplomacy can fail and succeed for a short period of time before seeing a breach or betrayal," Kochavi said during a handover ceremony of a senior official at the IDF General Staff.
Kochavi is the latest senior figure in the top brass of Israel's defense establishment to throw his hat into the ring on Iran, siding with Mossad Director David Barnea.
While Barnea believes that any new nuclear agreement that could be signed with Tehran would be a bad one, senior figures in the IDF's Intelligence Directorate believe Israel must support any prospect to block Iran from attaining military nuclear capabilities, including a return to the tattered 2015 agreement which has many shortcomings, including its sunset close.
"Preparing the home front for war has been an important issue since the inception of the state, but it has become increasingly important over the years," said Kochavi, who will finish his term as IDF chief in the coming months.
"This is a task that must be accelerated in the coming years, especially in view of the possibility that we will be required to act against a nuclear threat, and it should be part of the intensive preparations we are advancing for the moment of truth.
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Uranium enrichment centrifuges at the at the nuclear facility in Natanzm Iran
(Photo: AFP)
The IDF continues to prepare vigorously for an attack on Iran for two reasons. First, in case there is no agreement and the Iranian nuclear program continues to expand. And the second, in case there is an identical or similar agreement to the previous agreement, which means a bad agreement, which creates conditions for Iran to become a nuclear state shortly after its expiration date.
The IDF must prepare for every development and every scenario. Preparing a military option against the Iranian nuclear program is a moral imperative and a national security obligation.
Preparations for military action against the nuclear program are at the center of preparations in the IDF and include a variety of operational plans, the allocation of resources, the acquisition of appropriate weapons, intelligence and training. The IDF provides the military capability for the day the political echelon will seek to make a decision."