Israel Fully Prepared for Multi-Week War Against Iran

Degradation of Iran's nuclear capabilities may take several weeks.

- JOYEEETA BASU

As Iran fires waves of ballistic missiles at Israel on the second day of the war on Saturday, in retaliation to Israel's attack on its military installations on Friday—attacks that are ongoing—experts in Tel Aviv say that their Operation Rising Lion is likely to continue for quite some time. Israel is going not only for a decapitation operation where the top military brass as well as the scientific leadership of Iran's missiles and nuclear programs are eliminated, but also a complete degradation—if possible, elimination—of Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities, which may take several weeks, because the facilities are spread all over Iran, which is a big country. This comes in the backdrop of the announcement made by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday that they have "established aerial freedom of operation in western Iran, up to Tehran... Tehran is no longer immune-Iran's capital is now exposed to Israeli strikes.

Experts say that Israel went for an all-out war at this juncture as it had credible information that Iran had started getting the capability to deliver a nuclear weapon. According to the Israelis, Iran had speeded up its uranium enrichment program after the defanging of the Hezbollah in Lebanon from September 2024 onwards, and the subsequent fall of Bashar AlAssad in Syria in December-both Iranian proxies that were being used by Tehran against Israel.