Israel considering attack on Iran within days - ABC
Israel is weighing a potential attack on Iran within days, ABC News reported on Thursday citing three sources familiar with the situation.
The network cited the sources as saying they were unaware of any specific US role but added it was possible the United States could share intelligence or support logistics.
A sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks were still due for Sunday, ABC News quoted a source familiar with the plans.
"Senior Advisor and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff plans to travel to Muscat on Sunday for a sixth round of talks with Iran. Discussions are expected to be both direct and indirect, as in previous rounds."
Crews work on an Israeli Air Force F-15 Eagle in a hangar, said to be following an interception mission of an Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel, in this handout image released April 14, 2024.
A top US Senator on Thursday said a resolution against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency meant it was time to trigger the so-called snapback of United Nations sanctions on Tehran.
"@IAEAorg’s findings prove the importance of @POTUS’s push for total dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program," Senator Jim Risch wrote on X.
"The evidence is clear that Iran has violated its nuclear commitments and has no peaceful use for its current stockpiles. Time to trigger snapback sanctions," the Idaho Republican who serves as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman added.
The United States is considering ways to provide military support for an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites without taking a lead role, CBS News reported citing a US official and a source familiar with the matter.
The plans could include intelligence sharing or aerial refueling, but CBS News cited the US official as saying they were unaware of any commitment yet.
CBS news cited the source familiar with the coordination that Washington was unlikely to commit heavy bombers which Israel lacks and some analysts have said are necessary to penetrate Iran's nuclear infrastructure deep underground.
"Will you commit to us not bombing (Iran) ... unless we're directly hit?" California representative Ro Khanna asked US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a House hearing on Thursday, referring to any preemptive preemptive attack.
"Would you agree ... that Netanyahu is itching for a fight? If Netanyahu uses American missiles to hit Iran, he's going to drag us into a war there," Khanna added, in a rare public intervention by a Democratic lawmaker on Trump's Iran policy.
"Our military knows that you cannot just throw hits (and) eliminate Iran's nuclear capability. They'll simply go underground, and they will then end monitoring," he said.
"Will you stand up today and make it clear to Netanyahu that the escalation that he's threatening just yesterday is not in the American interest, that you should not be dragging America into a war with Iran?"
Iranian state media began releasing images of what it said were documents related to Israel's nuclear program obtained by Tehran and said they demonstrated collusion between the United Nations nuclear agency and arch-foe Israel.
"The first set of documents obtained from the Israeli regime shows that Grossi, the Secretary General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had full cooperation and close coordination with this regime and fully implemented its orders," the Tasneem news agency wrote on X.
The outlet, which is affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, included images of email exchanges in Hebrew and and what appeared to be a printed letter from Meirav Zafary-Odiz, Israel's ambassador to the IAEA, to its now chief Raphael Grossi.
Dated 2016, the alleged letter requests a meeting.
Other documents appeared to be email exchanges between Zafary-Odiz and an Israeli academic using an University of Washington email address and focused on panel discussions on nuclear topics.
Iran's intelligence ministry said last week it had obtained a trove of sensitive material from Israel, including documents it says are related to the Jewish state's nuclear and strategic facilities.
Israeli security experts cast doubt on the assertion, saying it was likely part of a state attempt to sway opinion as US-Iran nuclear talks enter a critical phase.
Amir Rashidi, director of cyber security and digital rights of the Iran-focused human rights NGO the Miaan Group, said the documents released on Thursday appeared dubious.
"There are several red flags that raise questions about the authenticity and origin of these materials," he wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
Their presentation as screenshots impairs verification through metadata and timestamps, pages are numbered in Persian-Arabic script and Iranian hackers' past compromising of academic accounts makes the university email address suspect, Rashidi said.
Tehran said nuclear talks with Washington have been rendered more complicated after the UN nuclear watchdog passed a resolution calling Iran non-compliant.
“Sunday’s negotiations in Oman are taking place under the shadow of the new resolution passed by the IAEA Board of Governors, which adds to the complexity of the discussions," foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters on Thursday.
"We will be in Muscat to defend the rights of the Iranian nation, our principled positions, and the nuclear achievements of Iranian scientists,” he added.
