Israel seen as likely to strike Iran’s nuclear program by midyear, Washington Post reports

(Forelines) – United States intelligence alerts that Israel is likely to carry out a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program by middle of the year, according to the Washington Post on Wednesday, quoting several intelligence reports.

Such a strike would set back Iran’s nuclear program by weeks or months while rising tension in the area and risking a wider dispute, as per several intelligence reports from the end of the Biden administration and begin of the Trump administration, as per the Washington Post report.

The White House refused to comment. The Washington Post stated the government of Israel, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence refused to comment.

A spokesman for the White House National Security Council, Brian Hughes, said to the Washington Post that President Donald Trump “will not permit Iran to get a nuclear weapon.”

“While he prefers negotiating a resolution to American’s long-standing issues with the Iranian regime peacefully, he will not wait indefinitely if Iran isn’t willing to deal, and soon,” Brian Hughes said to The Washington Post.

The most extensive of the intelligence reports came in beginning of January and was made by the intelligence directorate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the The Washington Post.

It alerted that Israel was likely to attempt a strike on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites.

Recent and previous U.S. authorities closer with the intelligence stated Israel has determined its bombing of Iran in October damaged Iran’s air defenses and left the nation exposed to a follow-on attack, stated to the Washington Post, which did not name the authorities.

Iran and Israel involved in tit-for-tat attacks previous year in the midst of broader tensions over Israel’s war in Gaza.

The intelligence reports identified two possible attack options that each would engage the U.S. facilitating aerial refueling assistance and intelligence, stated by the Post.

Donald Trump said to Fox News in an interview that aired on Monday he would favor to make a deal with Iran to avoid it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, stating he further believed Iran would favor a deal over an armed dispute.

According to Donald Trump, “Everyone thinks Israel, with our help or our approval, will go in and bomb the hell out of them. I would prefer that not happen.”

The U.S. under the President Barack Obama and European allies mediated an agreement with Iran to pause its nuclear program, but Donald Trump in his initial term in office, endorsed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, withdrew the U.S. from the landmark accord and ordered sanctions enforced again on Tehran in 2018.

Iran has since resumed its nuclear program and is enriching uranium, as per the United Nation International Atomic Energy Agency.

Abbas Araqchi, Iran Foreign Minister said to Iran’s state TV in January that Iran, Britain, France and Germany have met in Geneva to look for a path to resume nuclear talks.