Outgoing Israeli Chief of Staff General Aviv Kochavi said Friday that operations carried out by his army and Mossad agents in recent years managed to curb most of the activities of Iranian militias against Israel in several countries in the region, notably Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
He added that his forces have many plans and targets to strike Iran itself and Hezbollah.
Kochavi was speaking in a farewell interview with the Hebrew media just days before his successor Herzi Halevi takes the job on Monday
He said Israel has dramatically increased the number of its targets on Iranian soil.
Over the past year and a half, “we carried out to major maneuvers against these targets and will carry out the third one soon,” he revealed.
“If it comes to entering a major battle, military sites and additional sites will be included in the list of targets,” he stated. “We have been engaged in accelerating preparations to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in recent years, and many other types of targets.”
Kochavi said the most correct strategy now is to further tighten the sanctions on Iran and to create pressure that will lead to a situation similar to 2003, when the Iranians decided to halt the military dimension of the nuclear program.
He praised the Israeli attacks in Syria, which he said were aimed at preventing the transfer of weapons from Iran to Syria and to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In March, Israel will mark a decade to what the Israeli forces calls the “Mabam” – a Hebrew acronym for the war-between-wars, otherwise known as the covert shadow campaign that the country wages fiercely against Iran and its regional proxies.
According to Kochavi, the attacks in Syria turned into a strategic war and expanded to include other countries.
“The pro-Iranian militias are no longer able to carry out their missions freely, neither in Syria, nor in Yemen, nor in other places,” he said.
He also warned Hezbollah, saying the Israeli army had prepared offensive plans against the Lebanese party if it decided to escalate the situation.
Meanwhile, Kochavi stressed that Iran has amassed enough enriched nuclear material to make four bombs.
He said his forces are working on two important objectives: “the first is to locate Iranian missiles so that in the event of an attack we will be able to hit as many as possible; the second is to establish an air defense system to neutralize these missiles.”
Kochavi added: “We are starting from the practical assumption that an attack in Iran can lead to a wider war in the northern region, in which Hezbollah will participate.”
In the event of an attack by Hezbollah, Israel is ready to set Lebanon back 50 years, he warned. “It will not be enough to target the armed organization, but we will hit all Lebanese infrastructure,” he said.
