Israel: Attack on Syrian Nuclear Facilities Was Our Work; Warning to Iran

On Wednesday, March 21, Israel confirmed for the first time that the bombing of Syria's nuclear reactor eleven years ago was carried out by them, and officials stated that this should serve as a warning to Iran. The Israeli army made several documents and videos of the bombing of Syria's nuclear reactor available to the media. According to the Israeli army, on September 5 and 6, 2007, four F-16 jets destroyed the nuclear facilities in Deir ez-Zor, located 450 kilometers north of Damascus, in a four-hour radar-evading operation. Senior Israeli officials say that the Al-Kibar nuclear reactor in Syria was being constructed by North Korea under the guise of an agricultural program in the desert region of Deir ez-Zor, with the work done by technicians and other personnel from North Korea. According to these officials, Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, had shared the secret of the reactor's construction with only a very few Syrian officials. Gadi Eisenkot, the current commander of the Israeli army, stated in a statement released alongside the documents and videos of the bombing that 'Israel will not allow the establishment of facilities that could pose a threat to Israel; this was the message of our 2007 operation; it is our message today and in the future to other countries.' Avigdor Lieberman, the current Israeli defense minister, also issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that the bombing of the Syrian nuclear reactor 'holds lessons for everyone in the Middle East' and that Israel acts to defend itself and make necessary and fundamental decisions. Lieberman, while on the first visit of an Israeli defense minister to Africa, added in his statement that 'enemies' should think carefully about Israel's superior capabilities in the Middle East, which 'have become stronger in recent years.' Meanwhile, Yisrael Katz, the Israeli information minister, stated that the 2007 attack shows that Israel will never allow 'countries like Iran that threaten Israel's existence' to acquire nuclear weapons. Israel, which has recently warned about the 'stabilization of Iran's military presence in Syria,' has long considered Iran's nuclear program a 'vital threat' to itself and subsequently labeled the Iran nuclear deal with world powers a 'historic mistake,' still seeking to either completely amend or cancel it. Syria has yet to respond to the confirmation of the bombing of its nuclear reactor by Israel. After the bombing, Syria remained silent, just as it has remained silent during seven years of civil war in response to many military attacks attributed to Israel on its territory. In June 1981, Israel also bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor while that country was at the beginning of the war with Iran, under the orders of then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Details of the attack on the Al-Kibar nuclear facilities were discussed by former commanders of the Israeli army, including the air force commander and several pilots involved in the bombing, in interviews on Wednesday. Until now, the only person who had indirectly referred to Israel's involvement in that bombing was Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister, who was the leader of the opposition at the time and shortly after the bombing, in an interview with Israel's Channel One, said, 'In a phone call with Ehud Olmert, I congratulated him on a tremendous success for Israel and supported his decision.' Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister at the time of the bombing, stated in an interview with Ynet on Wednesday, 'Just one minute after receiving the final information that a nuclear reactor was being built 450 kilometers from Israel's territory, I ordered the bombing.' Olmert added, 'One should not let the fear and doubt of a leader distract from the central objective.' According to him, '2,500 Israelis (people involved in the intelligence matters of the country who were involved in gathering information about the Syrian reactor and then the bombing) were aware of the matters, but none of them have spoken out until today.' Amir Peretz and Tzipi Livni, former defense and foreign ministers, and Amos Yadlin, the then-head of the military intelligence agency, also referred to parts of the behind-the-scenes negotiations between intelligence agencies and the government before and after the bombing in multiple interviews with their country's media on Wednesday. Amir Peretz, the defense minister at the time, said that Meir Dagan, the then-head of Mossad, came to him and showed him images of the area of the Syrian nuclear reactor one after another. Amos Yadlin also revealed that his country, among other means, was able to access sensitive and accurate information about Syria's nuclear program through a spy program implanted in the computer of a Syrian nuclear scientist living in Vienna, the capital of Austria. According to Yadlin, Israel should have carried out the bombing 'earlier' and the timing of the bombing was only six months before its completion. Yadlin noted that in June 2007, Ehud Barak replaced Amir Peretz as defense minister and that Barak, upon taking office, wanted to delay the bombing, expressing concern that doing so would start a war between Syria and Israel. However, Ehud Barak defended the 'validity' of his views at that time in media interviews.