IAF To Hold A Massive Military Drill Simulating Attack On Iran

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) will hold a massive military drill in spring with dozens of aircraft over the Mediterranean to simulate a strike against Iran’s nuclear program, reported Israeli media. The report was later confirmed by the Israeli military on Thursday. 

The drill, which is said to be one of the largest to be held by the Israeli forces, has been planned since early 2021, with the IDF receiving billions of shekels for additional funding in the recently passed national budget. 

The report comes shortly after the US-Israeli meeting held on Thursday to discuss possible measures by the military to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities in the case of failed diplomacy talks for the revival of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. 

The 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was a long-term deal between Iran and the world powers, the US, UK, France, China, Russia, and Germany, known as the P5+1. 

The agreement permitted Iran to continue its nuclear activities but under “extraordinary and robust monitoring, verification, and inspection” by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog, while the US, UK, and the EU would lift the sanction previously implemented on Iran. 

In May 2018, the then-US President Donald Trump backed out from the JCPOA calling it “defective at its core” and further reinstated the previous US sanctions on Iran to pressurize the country to negotiate a replacement which would successfully seek to cancel Iran’s missile programs and its involvement in regional conflicts. 

Iran and the world powers continue to negotiate to reinstate the 2015 nuclear deal in Vienna, Austria, but so far have not reached any conclusion. 

“The talks in Vienna were constructive … our next meeting will be on Friday,” Abbas Araghchi, who is leading the Iranian delegation in Vienna, told the Press TV.