Israel is preparing for the war with Iran to drag into April. Tel Aviv assesses that the government in Tehran will likely remain in place after the conflict.
Israeli officials told Ynet that preparations were underway in Tel Aviv for the war against Iran to last another month. Tehran has said it is prepared to fight Israel and the US for months.
Tel Aviv is also taking a new approach to the war as it expects the Islamic Republic to survive the conflict. Israeli officials explained that Tel Aviv was going to continue to encourage an uprising in Iran.
“We continue to strike regime targets, mainly in Tehran. We are entering the decisive phase. We are aiming to bring the people out into the streets. It’s not only us — the Americans are also working toward that,” an Israeli official said. “Not everything can be controlled, but everything possible is being done to make it succeed. The regime must be weakened as much as possible, including the Basij. We are striking them and killing them in the thousands.”
An Israeli official told the outlet that Tel Aviv was skeptical that an uprising would take down the Islamic Republic, although Washington was more optimistic.
The officials explained that Israel’s new approach involves targeting Iranian missile launchers and production sites. Israel targeted Iran’s missile production sites in June with the goal of making Tehran unprepared for future conflict.
However, over two weeks into the current war, the Iranian military is continuing to conduct successful missile and drone strikes on Israel and US bases in the Middle East.
Even if Israel ends the war with Iran, it is still in a conflict with Hezbollah. One official told Ynet that Tel Aviv expects the war in Lebanon to last longer than the conflict with Iran.
