Israel’s Army Chief of Staff Threatens to Wage War on Iran

 Israel's Army Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi speaks at a press conference in Tel Aviv on January 26, 2021 (AP)
Israel's Army Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi speaks at a press conference in Tel Aviv on January 26, 2021 (AP)
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Israel’s Army Chief of Staff Threatens to Wage War on Iran

 Israel's Army Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi speaks at a press conference in Tel Aviv on January 26, 2021 (AP)
Israel's Army Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi speaks at a press conference in Tel Aviv on January 26, 2021 (AP)

Israel’s top general appeared to refer implicitly to Iran in comments Sunday about Israeli military operations.

Israel's Army Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi said his army had obtained an enhanced offensive capability ready to transform its training to military operations at any time.

His comments came following reports claiming that the Israeli Mossad intelligence service had a role in an attack that targeted Tehran’s Natanz nuclear site.

The army’s “operations in the Middle East are not hidden from the eyes of the enemy,” Kohavi said at a memorial service in Jerusalem for fallen soldiers.

“They are watching us, seeing [our] abilities and weighing their steps with caution,” he added.

Kohavi also highlighted the drills scheduled for May and said it will be a month of the war, during which “we will conduct training on various fighting methods."

“We are ready to transform this military drill into an actual military operation,” he commented in a direct threat to Tehran.

He also responded to accusations and threats against Israel following a mine attack on an Iranian freighter in the Red Sea.

“Thanks to other complex and smart military operations, and thanks to you, soldiers and officers of the Israeli army, the past year has been one of the most secure for Israel and its citizens,” Kohavi told his soldiers.

The military commander’s remarks came hours after published Iranian reports indicated that the Natanz nuclear facility faced a technical incident, before confirming that it has been attacked.

It is still unclear whether Israel truly is involved in the “very suspicious” incident at Natanz, Ynet’s senior Israeli defense analyst and veteran military correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai wrote on Sunday.

“It is also unclear how severe the damage is to the facility, but it has certainly delayed the use of the new centrifuges unveiled just days ago - and older centrifuges used for enriching uranium were also impacted.”

According to Ben-Yishai, Iran decided to announce the incident for two reasons. Firstly, UN inspectors and their monitoring cameras were still active at Natanz and would have been able to detect the malfunction.

Secondly, the Iranians, who have observed an increase in the Israeli propensity to brag about covert operations, hoping to use any Israeli reaction to gauge whether it indeed had a hand in it.

The analyst also noted that Saturday was National Nuclear Technology Day in Iran, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that his country was experimenting at Natanz with at least three new types of centrifuges able to enrich uranium 10-50 times faster than before.

“This means that Tehran would be able to quickly increase its uranium enrichment production, making it able to produce a nuclear weapon within weeks and not one year,” he noted.

He said Israel fears the Iranians will achieve this goal and the world will have missed the opportunity to stop Iran, thereby leaving the Islamic Republic with nuclear capabilities - with all its implications for the Middle East and the entire world.



China Announces Joint Naval, Air Drills with Russia 

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese and Russian warships take part in a joint naval drills in the East China Sea, Dec. 27, 2022. (Xu Wei/Xinhua via AP, File)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese and Russian warships take part in a joint naval drills in the East China Sea, Dec. 27, 2022. (Xu Wei/Xinhua via AP, File)
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China Announces Joint Naval, Air Drills with Russia 

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese and Russian warships take part in a joint naval drills in the East China Sea, Dec. 27, 2022. (Xu Wei/Xinhua via AP, File)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese and Russian warships take part in a joint naval drills in the East China Sea, Dec. 27, 2022. (Xu Wei/Xinhua via AP, File)

China’s Defense Ministry on Monday announced joint naval and air drills with Russia starting this month, underscoring the closeness between their militaries as Russia presses its grinding invasion of Ukraine.

The ministry said the “Northern United-2024” exercises would take place in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk farther north, but gave no details.

It said the naval and air drills aimed to improve strategic cooperation between the two countries and “strengthen their ability to jointly deal with security threats.”

The notice also said the two navies would cruise together in the Pacific, the fifth time they have done so, and together take part in Russia’s “Great Ocean-24” exercise. No details were given.

China has refused to criticize Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, and blamed the US and NATO for provoking President Vladimir Putin.

While China has not directly provided Russia with arms, it has become a crucial economic lifeline as a top customer for Russian oil and gas as well as a supplier of electronics and other items with both civilian and military uses.

Russia and China, along with other US critics such as Iran, have aligned their foreign policies to challenge Western-led liberal democratic order. With joint exercises, Russia has sought Chinese help in achieving its long-cherished aim of becoming a Pacific power, while Moscow has backed China's territorial claims in the South China Sea and elsewhere.

That has increasingly included the 180-kilometer (110-mile) wide Taiwan Strait that divides mainland China from the self-governing island democracy that Beijing considers its own territory and threatens to invade.

Based on that claim, the Taiwan Strait is Chinese. Though it is not opposed to navigation by others through one of the world's most heavily trafficked sea ways, China is “firmly opposed to provocations by countries that jeopardize China’s sovereignty and security under the banner of freedom of navigation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing on Friday.

Mao was responding to a report that a pair of German navy ships were to pass through the strait this month for the first time in more than two decades. The US and virtually every other country, along with Taiwan, considers the strait international waters.