ISRAEL is preparing to strike Iranian nuclear plants if faced with a revenge attack for the death of a top Tehran commander last week.
Netanyahu‘s war cabinet has been locked in crunch meetings over fears that Iran will launch an assault as Middle East tensions threaten to boil over into all-out war.
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Now a Western security official has revealed that Israel will respond to any attacks by striking Iran‘s nuclear targets directly.
Israeli forces have been conducting air force drills in preparation for the dangerous escalation, Elaph News reports.
Iran is home to several nuclear sites – including power plants, uranium mines and research reactors.
A targeted attack against one of them could mark an unprecedented escalation in the melting pot of Middle East conflict.
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Tehran’s embassy in Syrian capital Damascus was destroyed in a suspected Israeli strike last Monday – killing several top brass commanders.
General Mohammad Reza Zahedi died alongside six senior members of Iran’s twisted terrorist army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Iran’s formidable Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei quickly hit out with revenge threats and vowed to “defeat the Zionist regime”.
Snarling Tehran President Ebrahim Rasi said Israel’s alleged blast “will not go unanswered”.
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Experts told The Sun that retaliation by Iran, backers of terror groups including Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi rebels, would spark a global war.
Former British tank commander and military analyst Hamish de-Bretton Gordon described the countries as “sworn enemies”.
In the six months since war broke out between Hamas and Israel, Iranian terror proxies have wreaked havoc in their attempts to attack Israel.
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Nuclear sites in Iran
IRAN, a formidable and dangerous world power, is home to a number of nuclear sites.
It is thought to have active nuclear sites, research reactors and uranium mines.
Arak plant – satellite pictures of this plant near the Iranian town of Arak surfaced over 20 years ago.
It contains a heavy-water reactor with plutonium that can be used for nuclear bombs.
Bushehr nuclear power station – this power plant is a combination of Russian and German engineering.
It’s nuclear reactor is operating at 100% power and the site is home to enriched uranium, used for nuclear bombs.
Gachin uranium mine – home to uranium ore concentrate, or yellowcake, which can be transformed into enriched uranium ready for nuke bomb assembling.
Isfahan conversion plant – yellowcake is converted here into three dangerous substances.
Hexafluoride gase used in the enrichment process, uranium oxide used to fuel reactors and metal used in the cores of nuclear bombs.
Natanz uranium enrichment plant – this is Iran’s largest enrichment base.
It’s made up of three underground buildings and is closely watched by the international community.
Parchin military site – south of Tehran, this site is focused on research and the production of ammo, rockets and explosives.
Concerns have been raised that it is also used as part of Iran’s nuclear weapon development.
Qom uranium enrichment plant – a heavily fortified and initially secret facility where Iran carries out uranium enrichment.
Hours after Iran threatened to strike Israel in revenge for the Damascus blast, national security defences shot up and the army jumped to action in preparation for the worst.
Israeli soldiers had planned leave cancelled and reservists were called up.
GPS across the country was also shut down as air defences and missile stores were shored up.
A fuming Netanyahu hit back that Israel knows how to defend itself – and would harm anyone who posed a threat.
The PM raged: “Iran has been acting against us for years..We will know how to defend ourselves.
“And we will act according to the simple principle: that those who harm us or plan to harm us, we will harm.”
There is no way to tell exactly how Iran would respond to an attack on its nuclear sites or whether either country would resort to actually dispatching nuclear weapons.
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Iran did publish a worrying graphic just days ago showing nine different types of missiles it possessed that are capable of reaching Israel.
Some can fly at a top speed of 560mph, but most of Tehran’s terror collection can reach a range of 1242 miles.
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Source: Sun
