The United States and Israel are running a series of joint aerial exercises that simulated strikes against Iran.
“The Israeli military published pictures of joint aerial exercises with the U.S. that were held this week and simulated attacks on Iran.
The drills were held over Israel and the Mediterranean Sea. According to the Times of Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said the exercises involved four Israeli F-35 fighter jets that joined four U.S. F-15s and a U.S. KC-135 tanker aircraft that refueled two Israeli F-16s.
While Israel often threatens to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, it’s not clear if they have the capabilities to pull off the operation on its own. Israel currently relies on aging tankers for mid-air refueling, which aren’t expected to be able to support the long-distance flight needed to target Iran.
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| Photograph of the drill released by Israeli Defense Forces. |
The drills came after the head of the IDF, Aviv Kohavi, was in Washington and urged U.S. officials to step up planning for joint attacks on Iran. Upon his return to Israel, Kohavi said that the U.S. and Israel agreed to ‘significantly expand’ joint military activity.
The IDF said that during this week’s drills, Israel’s Intelligence Directorate ‘conducted an extensive simulation that replicated a campaign against distant countries’, referencing Iran.
‘These exercises are a key component of the two militaries’ increasing strategic cooperation in response to shared concerns in the Middle East, particularly those posed by Iran’, the IDF said.
Israeli officials have been hyping up the threat of Iran’s nuclear program, but the U.S. recently acknowledged in its Nuclear Posture Review that Tehran is not making a nuclear weapon. That conclusion hasn’t stopped the threats for Israel or the U.S. as Robert Malley, President Biden’s special envoy for Iran, warned in October the U.S. would use a ‘military option’ against Iran as a ‘last resort’ to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear bomb”. -Dave DeCamp, Antiwar
Israel has been hellbent on destroying Iran so that it can never pose a military or political challenge to the Jewish state for some time now.
It would require turning Iran’s nuclear industry and its economy into ruin and possibly even breaking up Iran, as was done with Iraq, into Iranian, Azeri, and Kurdish mini-states.
Considering that Iran’s apex court just recently upheld the death penalty for four people accused of working for Israeli intelligence and charged with destroying private and public property, kidnappings, and obtaining false confessions, it’s hardly a surprise that the Israel-Iran “shadow war” has begun to come into the light.