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Israeli Cabinet Approves $2.8 Billion Budget for Potential Strike against Iran

The Israeli army conducted exercises in the Golan Heights on Feb. 15 (AFP)
The Israeli army conducted exercises in the Golan Heights on Feb. 15 (AFP)
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Israeli Cabinet Approves $2.8 Billion Budget for Potential Strike against Iran

The Israeli army conducted exercises in the Golan Heights on Feb. 15 (AFP)
The Israeli army conducted exercises in the Golan Heights on Feb. 15 (AFP)

The Israeli government approved a multiyear draft general budget, to include an increase by around USD2.8 billion for a potential strike against Iran, following 36 hours of deliberations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted of approving the budget, saying that an agreement was reached on a multi-year plan for the security services and the army.

He pointed to the importance of the agreement, which he said was made unanimously with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, “with a little help on my part.”

Netanyahu explained that the budget would bring about a change in the course of military service, and in rewarding soldiers for service. He said that it would provide the appropriate financial reward for soldiers and officers, while shortening the period of service in order to reduce the period of engagement in the labor market, which he said constituted a tremendous change for Israel’s security and for the Israeli economy.

The budget approval comes two days after Ted Colbert, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, announced in Tel Aviv that Israel had requested the purchase of 50 F-15EX aircraft, and the modernization of all F-15 fighters.

Israel is planning to ask the US to sell its new 5,000 pound GBU-72 bomb to the Israeli army. The bomb weighs 5,000 pounds and can be used to strike underground Iranian nuclear sites.

The Israeli army had obtained USD1.5 billion in the 2021 budget to purchase weapons for the possible war with Iran. This year, it requested an additional USD3 billion, of which it obtained USD2.8 billion.

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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is "absolutely irresponsible", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, in response to a report in the New York Times citing unidentified officials who suggested such a possibility.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

"Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications," the newspaper wrote.

Asked about the report, Peskov told reporters: "These are absolutely irresponsible arguments of people who have a poor understanding of reality and who do not feel a shred of responsibility when making such statements. We also note that all of these statements are anonymous."

Earlier, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.

Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that as Ukraine had handed over the nuclear weapons, joining NATO was the only way it could deter Russia.

The 33-month Russia-Ukraine war saw escalations on both sides last week, after Ukraine fired US and British missiles into Russia for the first time, with permission from the West, and Moscow responded by launching a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile into Ukraine.

Asked about the risk of a nuclear escalation, Peskov said the West should "listen carefully" to Putin and read Russia's newly updated nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

Separately, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said Moscow opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because it needs a "solid and long-term peace" that resolves the core reasons for the crisis.