WASHINGTON/TEHRAN: US intelligence warns that Israel is likely to launch a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear programme by midyear, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing multiple intelligence reports.

Such an attack would set back Iran’s nuclear programme by weeks or months while escalating tension in the region and risking a wider conflict, according to multiple intelligence reports from the end of the Biden administration and start of the Trump administration, the newspaper reported.

Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told the Post that President Donald Trump “will not permit Iran to get a nuclear weapon.” “While he prefers negotiating a resolution to American’s long-standing issues with the Iranian regime peacefully, he will not wait indefinitely if Iran isn’t willing to deal, and soon,” Hughes told the Post.

The most comprehensive of the intelligence reports came in early January and was produced by the intelligence directorate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Post said.

Tehran says will rebuild nuclear facilities if attacked

It warned that Israel was likely to attempt an attack on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities. Current and former US officials familiar with the intelligence said Israel has determined its bombing of Iran in October degraded Iran’s air defences and left the country exposed to a follow-on assault, said the Post.

Iran and Israel engaged in tit-for-tat strikes last year amid wider tensions over Israel’s conflict in Gaza. The intelligence reports envisioned two potential strike options that each would involve the US providing aerial refueling support and intelligence, the Post said.

Some analysts say Israel inflicted severe damage on Iranian air defences and missile capacities and could yet launch more wide-scale action against the Islamic republic, while Iran denied any major damage to its facilities.

Trump told Fox News in an interview that aired on Monday he would prefer to make a deal with Iran to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon, saying he

also believed Iran would prefer a deal over an armed conflict.

“Everyone thinks Israel, with our help or our approval, will go in and bomb the hell out of them. I would prefer that not happen,” Trump said.

“I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear. I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it,” Trump told the New York Post on Friday, adding: “If we made the deal, Israel wouldn’t bomb them.”

Iran’s reaction

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday said his country would rebuild its nuclear facilities if attacked, following US media reports that Israel was likely to launch a strike on key Iranian nuclear sites.

“They are threatening us that they will attack our Natanz nuclear facility. Come and attack it. It is the brains of our children that built it,” Pezeshkian said during a visit to the southern province of Bushehr. “If you destroy a hundred (nuclear facilities), our children will build a thousand,” he said, without directly referring to the US reports.

US under President Barack Obama and European allies negotiated an agreement with Iran to halt its nuclear programme, but Trump in his first term in office, encouraged by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, withdrew the United States from the landmark accord and ordered sanctions reimposed on Tehran in 2018.

Iran has since restarted its nuclear programme and is enriching uranium, according to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran, Britain, France and Germany have met in Geneva to search for a way to resume nuclear talks, Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Iran’s state TV in January.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2025