Asked if he would support an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, US President Joe Biden on Wednesday was unequivocal: “The answer is no.”
Some hawks in Israel have nevertheless been debating whether its air force should carry out such a strike in retaliation for the barrage of 180 ballistic missiles that Tehran fired into Israel this week.
But without US support, a solo Israeli air strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be highly risky and at best only delay rather than destroy its programme, according to analysts.
Why would an Israeli operation be difficult?
The first reason is distance. It is more than a thousand miles from Israel to Iran’s main nuclear bases, and to reach them Israeli planes would have to cross the sovereign airspace of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and potentially Turkey.