Iran attack set in ’11, ex-Israeli top spy says
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the order in 2011 for the military to prepare to attack Iran within 15 days, a former Mossad chief said in remarks released Thursday.
Tamir Pardo, who served as head of the Israeli intelligence agency from 2011-16, told Israeli Keshet TV’s investigative show Uvda that the order was not given “for the sake of a drill,” according to excerpts of the interview released ahead of the broadcast Thursday evening.
“When he tells you to start the countdown process, you know that he isn’t playing games with you,” Pardo is quoted as saying. “These things have enormous significance.”
There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office on Pardo’s claim.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel “will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons. We will continue to act against its intentions to establish itself militarily in Syria beside us, not just opposite the Golan Heights, but any place in Syria.”
Pardo’s claim comes as archenemies Israel and Iran are fighting a shadow war in Syria that earlier this month briefly threatened to burst into full-blown conflagration, after Israel bombed Iranian positions in Syria. Iranian fighters were killed in the bombings, which began after an alleged Iranian rocket barrage toward the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace. Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, and an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.
Israel has increasingly warned that it sees Iranian influence in Syria as a threat, pointing to Iran’s military presence inside the country as well as that of Iranian-backed militiamen.
Netanyahu has long been a strident critic of Iran and has accused Tehran of attempting to develop nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who served as Netanyahu’s defense minister in 2011, has previously claimed that Netanyahu sought to bomb Iran in 2010 and 2011 but was opposed by senior Israeli officials.
Pardo said that upon receiving the command, he sought “clarifications about everything I could, I checked with legal advisers. I consulted with everyone I could to understand who is authorized to give the order concerning launching a war.”
According to the excerpts, Pardo said he wanted “to be certain that if, heaven forbid, something incorrect happened, even if the mission failed, that there won’t be a situation where I carried out an illegal operation.”
It wasn’t clear from the preview what happened after Netanyahu’s purported order, but Israel never carried out a strike on Iran in 2011.