Iran recently accused its fiercest rival and adversary in the region, Israel, of a drone attack on its military facility and vowed retaliation for the incident. In contrast, Israel is allegedly planning to stitch an anti-Iran military coalition to wipe our Iranian nukes.
Corresponding with Iran’s ferocious warning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his first visit to France after he returned to power. As speculated, the interaction between the two countries leaders was dominated by the Iranian question.
French President Emmanuel Macron denounced Iran’s “headlong race” to build its nuclear program following a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu at the Élysée Palace. This is significant as recent local French media reports have claimed that Israeli outreach to France is part of a plot to stitch an anti-Iran military coalition.
According to a report published in Radio France Internationale, the Jewish state plans to form a military coalition with the Western powers to strike Iran. An unnamed diplomatic source cited by the publication revealed that Israel has already worked out the specifics of conducting a strike on Iran.
It said some 3,000 targets had been identified, and Israel wanted to take action quickly.
“But there is no question of going into battle alone.” This is where the role of Western countries comes into the picture. The report states that everything is ready on paper, and Israel has thoroughly studied its strategy to attack Iran.
Israel fears its biggest enemy, the Islamic Republic of Iran is acquiring nuclear weapons. It has long issued warnings that it would bomb Iranian nuclear facilities if the nuclear talks failed.
The right-wing PM could bank on the West’s disenchantment with Tehran owing to its uranium enrichment in defiance of the nuclear deal signed in 2015 and its military support to Russia.
According to the diplomatic source cited by RFI, the idea for Israel is to find allies. This could become easier than before as the West has criticized Tehran for supporting “Putin’s illegal occupation of Ukraine” and even tightened sanctions on the Islamic regime.
Even though Western countries like the United States and France are quick to condemn violent attacks anywhere in the world, they have maintained a studied silence on the unprecedented attack carried out inside Iran’s strategic depth.
Is Israel Stitching A Western-Gulf Alliance?
The diplomatic source explained to RFI that the military coalition allegedly envisioned by Israel would bring together France, the United States, and, ideally, a few Arab countries: certain Gulf monarchies, for which the Islamic Republic also constitutes a threat.
While the diplomatic source and the publication stopped short of naming the Gulf Arab countries that Israel would be looking to appease, it could include the Gulf countries like the UAE that have reconciled with Israel after signing the Abraham Accords in 2020.
Any such alliance, writes the RFI, would have a deterrent role and dissuade Iran from retaliating even if Israel attacked Iran because that would mean declaring war on several countries simultaneously.
Further, even though Israel has refused to provide any military support to Ukraine owing to its sensitivities related to Syria, it has given the impression that it wholeheartedly supports the Kyiv regime. It has sent several tranches of non-military aid to Ukraine over the months.
The latest set of reports has suggested that the country is slowly opening up to the possibility of supplying military equipment to Ukraine. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on February 1 in an interview with CNN that he was “definitely considering” providing military support to Kyiv.
He stated that Israel was prepared to consider providing Ukraine with the Iron Dome antimissile defense system. Even though Kyiv has pleaded with Tel Aviv for its cutting-edge air defense systems for several months, the latter has maintained radio silence on the matter up until now.
The RFI report states that Benyamin Netanyahu thus sends a message to Westerners: I support you in your war against Russia. Support me in my battle against Iran. This is what he is looking from Paris.
Israel has also found unwavering support from the United States, though Washington has denied involvement in the overnight drone attack in Iran. It is pertinent to note here that the US is also working on the Middle East Air Defense Alliance (MEAD) by bridging the gap between Israel and its Gulf-Arab allies to combat the threat posed by Iran.
In addition, it has recently been pulling close to Israel by intensifying cooperation through Central Military Command. In late January, US Air Force F-35s launched from the USS George HW Bush flew hundreds of miles over the Mediterranean Sea and teamed up with Israeli F-35s to mimic a joint assault on surface-to-air missile batteries in the Negev desert.
In the aftermath of these drills that demonstrated very complex capabilities, analysts and former US officials noted how many of the capabilities were startlingly comparable to those required by Israel to execute long-range strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites.
Israel may still have a long task to form the kind of coalition it desires against Iran. France may be its first stop.
