Netanyahu Not Ruling Out Preemptive Strike Against Iran

• Netanyahu Not Ruling Out Preemptive Strike Against Iran
  by Lilia Dergacheva, https://sputniknews.com/
  Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the UN Security Council’s decision not to allow an extension of the arms embargo on Iran as “scandalous”, adding his country is set to continue jointly working with the United States to thwart what he called “Iranian aggression”.
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  Israel has not ruled out a preemptive strike against Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned during a memorial service on Tuesday for those who fell in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, an Arab-Israeli military standoff.
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  “A preemptive strike is a difficult thing to do. I know that if Iran wants to base itself in the north, we are ready to fight them. This is a direct lesson of the Yom Kippur War”, noted Netanyahu, asserting that they “will do everything in order to protect the State of Israel; we are not ruling out a preliminary strike”.
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  The prime minister went on to ponder over “the power on our side”, saying it is what “brought peace with Jordan, Egypt, agreements with the UAE and Bahrain”.
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  “The power that will bring peace with additional states. The power and perseverance will allow us to handle the coronavirus crisis”, Netanyahu went on.
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  During the memorial, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin warned that the “surprise that was our lot” in the war must in no way be forgotten or repeated in either healthcare or the economy.
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  “I fought in the killing fields of that terrible war, and here I am today. Almost a jubilee later, and I well remember how we won that war. In the trenches, we fought shoulder to shoulder”, stressed Rivlin, further calling to rebuild the contract between the public and its elected representatives, and “reconcile the deep rifts among the people” for the sake of national security.
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• Israel Has 80-90 Nukes, SIPRI Report Says, as Tel Aviv Continues to Accuse Iran of Nuclear Obsession
  by https://www.rt.com/
  Israel, which routinely accuses Iran of trying to obtain nuclear weapons and pledges to use force to stop Tehran, maintains its own undeclared nuclear arsenal estimated at 80 to 90, according to the latest report by SIPRI.
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  There are nine nations in the world that currently have nuclear weapons, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says in its newly released yearbook on the state of armaments and international security. The world nuclear stockpile went from 14,465 at the beginning of last year to about 13,865 this year, the report estimates, as the US and Russia were delivering on their promises under the New START Treaty signed in 2010.
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  Israel, which maintains a policy of neither confirming nor denying the possession of nuclear weapons, has between 80 and 90 warheads in its stockpile, the same as the year before, the institute said.
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  It comes as tensions between Iran on one side, and the US and regional ally Israel on the other, continue to mount. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s unsinkable prime minister, has for years waged a campaign accusing the Iranians of having unwavering nuclear ambitions, regardless of the evidence, or lack thereof.
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“Iran doesn’t frighten me and I don’t think it should frighten the American people. They don’t have a bomb. They haven’t made a decision to build one. They don’t have the means to deliver one. And the Israelis have 300 atomic bombs! I mean who presents the existential threat to whom?” – Pat Buchanan (7:58 onwards)

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