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Should President Trump opt against authorizing an attack on Iran’s hidden enrichment facility at Fordow, Israel possesses several alternatives for targeting Iran’s deeply buried nuclear facility near Tehran.
One possibility entails deploying elite commandos from Israel’s Air Force Unit 5101, also known as Shaldag, named after the kingfisher bird known for its patience and diving prowess.
In September, members of this
In 2008, recognizing the limitations of Israeli F-16s in reaching Iran’s nuclear installations, Yadlin directed Mossad to devise an alternative strategy for disrupting Iran’s uranium enrichment activities at Natanz. A couple of years later, Israeli and American cyber experts unleashed Stuxnet, a destructive computer worm that caused chaos in thousands of Natanz centrifuges, significantly hindering Iran’s nuclear enrichment efforts.
More recently, retired Maj. Gen. Yadlin served as the head of Israel’s Military Intelligence in 2007, when Israel blew up a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor that the world did not know about. (Amos Yadlin)
The decision to strike Fordow, the crown jewel and heart of Iran’s nuclear program, is different, and Israel prefers the U.S. to use its B-2 stealth bombers and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.
“Anybody who wants the war to be over soon, to be finished quickly, have to find a way to deal with Fordow,” Yadlin said. “Those who think that attacking Fordow will escalate the war, in my judgment, it can de-escalate and terminate the war.”
And it could serve as a deterrent to China and Russia, who will see the power and capability of the U.S. military’s unique capability.
Another option would be to cut power to Fordow. Without power, the centrifuges enriching the uranium could become permanently disabled.
When asked if Israel could take out Fordow without American B-2 bombers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox’s Bret Baier in an exclusive interview last Sunday, “We have quite a few startups too and quite a few rabbits up our sleeve. And I don’t think that I should get into that.”
