Government, IDF working on budget for potential Iran strike plan – report

On Wednesday, the security cabinet is set to meet to discuss tensions with Tehran, including concerns that the US could return to the JCPOA nuclear deal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the Finance and Defense ministers and financial and military officials took part in a large meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday to discuss the budget required for a potential strike on Iran if it is deemed necessary, according to KAN news.

The meeting comes less than a week after Kochavi stated that he had ordered operational plans to strike Iran’s nuclear program to be ready if necessary, but whether to use those plans and under what circumstances was a decision for the political echelon.

On Sunday afternoon, the security cabinet is set to meet to discuss tensions with Iran, including concerns that the US could return to the JCPOA nuclear deal. It will be the first meeting of the security cabinet in more than a month and since Joe Biden was sworn in as president on January 20.
Kochavi warned last week that a return to the 2015 deal with Iran would allow the Islamic Republic to break out to a nuclear weapon in 2030 when the agreement expires.

Additionally on Monday, KAN news reported that a planned Iranian terrorist attack on an Israeli embassy in east Africa was recently thwarted.
Iran reportedly had sent agents to a country in east Africa to collect intelligence on the Israeli, American and UAE embassies in order to explore carrying out attacks against them. Some of the agents were European citizens with Iranian dual citizenship.

A number of the agents were reportedly arrested in the African country and in other countries. The attacks were reportedly meant to serve as revenge for the assassinations of former Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

The news comes just days after an explosion occurred next to the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, India. No injuries were reported in the incident. A letter found at the site reportedly warned that “the explosion is just a trailer for what’s coming.”

A previously-unknown terrorist organization called Jaish-ul-Hind, affiliated with Iran, took responsibility for the attack.