Israel weighs US warnings against striking Iran nuclear and energy facilities

Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel’s retaliation for Iran’s October 1 missile attack will be based on its ‘national interests’

Reading Time:3 minutes

An Israeli soldier next to the remains of an Emad ballistic missile. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:39pm, 15 Oct 2024Updated: 7:52pm, 15 Oct 2024

Israel said it is weighing the Biden administration’s misgivings over its planned counterstrike on Iran, after a report suggesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may spare Tehran’s nuclear and energy facilities to limit potential escalation.

The Jewish state, though, also asserted it is free to act how it sees fit after more than a year of battling Iranian proxy groups on its borders and fending off two direct long-range attacks from the Islamic republic, whose regional clout and nuclear aspirations Netanyahu casts as an existential threat.

“We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interests,” Netanyahu’s office said on Tuesday in a statement.

A report in The Washington Post said the Israeli premier had agreed to limit his retaliation for an October 1 Iranian ballistic missile salvo to military targets. It cited two officials familiar with the matter whom it did not identify.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits a base that was hit by a Hezbollah drone. Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO/dpa

Israel’s prospective counterstrike is jangling nerves across the Middle East and has further strained ties with US President Joe Biden, who has sought unsuccessfully to secure a truce in the country’s conflicts with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both organisations are designated terrorist groups by the US.