Israel Accelerates Plans For Operations Against Iran

 Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi
Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi
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Israel Accelerates Plans For Operations Against Iran

 Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi
Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi

Israeli Army Chief of Staff General Aviv Kohavi announced that the army was accelerating its operational plans against Iran due to the progress in its nuclear program.

“The progress of the Iranian nuclear program has led the army to accelerate its operational plans and the recently approved defense budget is earmarked for that,” Kohavi said, as quoted by the Israeli Jerusalem Post.

His statements came in parallel with the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett arrived in the United States, and before his meeting with US President Joe Biden and other senior officials.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned that Tehran was only two months away from having the ability to build nuclear weapons and called on the international community to develop a new plan that does not include reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced, last week, that Iran had put in place a new mechanism to accelerate the production of enriched uranium by 60 percent, stressing that Iran had produced enriched uranium metal with a fissile purity of up to 20 percent for the first time, at a time when diplomatic talks to save the 2015 nuclear deal are witnessing stalling.

France, Germany and Britain expressed, in a joint statement, their deep concern, last Thursday, about the IAEA report, saying that the move constituted a serious violation of Tehran’s commitments.

Iran’s special envoy, Rob Malley, said in an exclusive interview with the American Radio Farda that his country was ready to resume the Vienna negotiations if Tehran decided to return to the discussion table.



US House Speaker Johnson Will Travel to Israel on June 22 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., during a news conference at the RNC near the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., during a news conference at the RNC near the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP)
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US House Speaker Johnson Will Travel to Israel on June 22 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., during a news conference at the RNC near the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., during a news conference at the RNC near the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP)

US House Speaker Mike Johnson will travel to Israel to address the parliament on June 22, he said on Wednesday.

"Our ties run deeper than military partnerships and trade agreements," Johnson said in an emailed statement.

Punchbowl News, which first reported Johnson's plan, said the House Speaker was expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem during the trip.

Johnson did not provide further details on the planned trip.

Johnson announced the visit as Israel presses on with its military campaign in the Gaza Strip, more than 20 months after it launched its offensive there in response to a deadly incursion into Israel led by the Palestinian group Hamas.

On Tuesday, Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Norway imposed sanctions on far-right Israeli cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel called the action "outrageous" and said the Israeli government would hold a meeting early next week to decide how to respond.