Israel weighing 5 options post Iran deal, says expert

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel has five options in hand in case the US reaches a nuclear deal with Iran, according to an expert.

Yonatan Freeman, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told Anadolu Agency that Israel does not have any qualms about the US edging closer to a deal with Iran, but wants its security concerns to be addressed.

Freeman laid out five options for Israel to deal with Iran post-deal.

The first is to carry out military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites that produce enriched uranium.

The second option for Israel is to support, secretly or publicly, the Iranian anti-regime opposition in their attempt to topple the existing regime.

The third option is to use the tactic of “threat to use force” and to activate its deterrence power against Iran.

For the fourth option, Freeman sees that reaching a deal with Iran may push Israel to end its decades-long nuclear ambiguity policy.

The fifth and final option, he said, is to intensify Israeli lobbying in the US to push the US administration into withdrawing from the nuclear deal.

Tehran and Washington are both trying the revive the 2015 nuclear deal — which the former Trump administration abruptly abandoned. The deal puts strict limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange of the lifting of sanctions crippling its economy.

Western countries are also hoping to buy oil and gas from Iran as the EU is set to cut Russian oil imports by this year’s end as a punishment for Russia’s war in Ukraine.