Israeli security sources criticize the way in which the confrontation with Iran was managed, believing that an opportunity to significantly weaken the Tehran regime would have been missed.
According to Maariv, Israel and the United States had prepared, in coordination with CENTCOM, a broader military plan targeting command centers, vital infrastructure and Iran’s oil, gas and energy sectors.
This plan was also to rely on local opposition forces inside Iran, notably Kurdish elements, in order to provoke internal pressure against the regime and modify the balance of power in Tehran.
But according to these sources, Washington ultimately did not give the green light to the full implementation of the system.
Israel attributes this decline to several external political pressures. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey would have particularly expressed its concern about support for Kurdish groups in Iran, fearing that this would strengthen Kurdish influence throughout the region.
Gulf countries also feared that an extension of military operations against Iran would lead to strikes on energy infrastructure, with direct consequences on global oil and gas markets.
These pressures, combined with reservations within the American administration itself, would have led the White House to reduce the scale of operations and to block certain key phases of the plan.
In Israeli security circles, some believe that this prudence has allowed the Iranian regime to preserve the cohesion of its political and security institutions.
The same sources now fear that a possible agreement between Washington and Tehran, including sanctions relief or the release of Iranian funds, will give the regime new resources to rebuild its economic and military capabilities.
