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News Topical, Digital Desk : Israel attacked Iran's nuclear facilities on Friday morning. Many top Iranian commanders were also killed in the attack. Let us know why Iran and Israel, who once had secret relations, have become sworn enemies of each other and what is Israel's motive behind this attack?
Why are Israel and Iran enemies?
After Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, the leadership immediately identified the US and Israel as its main enemies. This was because of the closeness of Iran's rulers to the US and Western countries before the Islamic Revolution. When Israel was established in 1948, most Muslim countries refused to recognize it. Iran, a Shia-majority country with uneasy relations with Arab countries, was an exception.
Iran did not officially recognize Israel, but the two maintained secret ties due to shared strategic concerns. Under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran pursued a pro-Western foreign policy during the Cold War. Its key regional ally was the United States.
Israel was dependent on US support, so it saw Iran as its natural ally at that time. Iran's last Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had fled the country before the Islamic Revolution because of the disdain of the new leaders. He was seriously ill at that time.
accused of developing nuclear weapons
Over the past two decades, Israel has repeatedly accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons. Iran says it is pursuing its nuclear program for peaceful purposes only, but the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has warned that Tehran has enough uranium to make multiple nuclear bombs.
Israel's existence under threat
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Western nations assess that Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program by 2003. Iran says its program is peaceful, while it is still enriching uranium close to weapons-levels.
US intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran was not attempting to build a bomb. Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran a threat to its existence. Dismantling Iran's regional network of proxy groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis has been Israel's main goal.
The axis of resistance has weakened
Over the past four decades, Iran has built a network of terrorist proxy groups it called the Axis of Resistance. Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and smaller militias in Iraq and Syria were dominant across the region in recent years, but the axis has been weakened by the wider conflict that erupted after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Iran is Israel's strongest proxy
The military campaign against Hamas and Hezbollah has broken their back. In Syria, Iran's long-time ally, President Bashar al-Assad, has fallen.
Following Iran's missile attacks on Israel last year, Israel had weakened Iran's air defense capabilities by destroying its missile sites. Iran's new weakness, along with the collapse of Iran's proxy network, gave Israel an opening to attack.
Why did Israel decide to attack now?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that time was running out to attack Iran. He accused Iran of recently taking steps to develop nuclear weapons. He said that if this was not stopped, Iran could develop nuclear weapons in a very short time.
Meanwhile, nuclear talks between the US and Iran provided an opportunity but did not yield the expected results. If an agreement had been reached, the US could have lifted some of the harsh economic sanctions on Iran. In such a situation, it would have been very difficult for Israel to attack Iran. Israeli officials feared that these talks were giving Iran time and it was moving forward towards making a nuclear bomb.
IAEA condemns Iran
On Thursday, for the first time in 20 years, the IAEA's board of governors condemned Iran for not working with its inspectors. Iran immediately announced it would set up a third enrichment site and replace some of its centrifuges with more advanced ones. By then, Israel had decided to attack.
US President Donald Trump had claimed that he had asked Netanyahu not to attack Iran until the talks continue, but Trump has a long record of supporting Israel and it seems that Israel has America's full support for this attack as well.
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