(Bloomberg) -- Israel abruptly claimed responsibility for a 2007 airstrike that destroyed an unfinished nuclear reactor in Syria, lifting more than a decade of silence to signal it won’t let Iran threaten its security.
Israel’s government, military and Mossad spy agency “prevented Syria from developing a nuclear capability,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday in a statement after military censorship of the attack was lifted. “The policy of Israel was and remains consistent: to prevent our enemies from acquiring nuclear weapons.”
Transportation and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, drew a more direct line to Tehran. The operation “sends a clear message: Israel will never allow nuclear weapons to countries like Iran who threaten its existence,” he tweeted.
Netanyahu has renewed his high-profile campaign against Iran and its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, having found a kindred spirit in President Donald Trump, who has threatened to pull out of the pact. As major actors in Syria’s civil war try to consolidate gains, the prime minister has been sounding the alarm, repeatedly warning that it won’t let Tehran or its Lebanese Hezbollah proxy, establish a permanent military presence in Syria near the Israeli-held Golan Heights.
Signaling U.S.
Israel’s confirmation of its 2007 raid could be as much a warning to Trump as to Iran, said Ronen Bergman, author of “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” a book published in January that touches on the 2007 bombing.
Israeli officials are “extremely frustrated that the Trump administration hasn’t done enough to make sure that Iran doesn’t deploy in Syria” permanently, he said in a conference call with reporters. The strike against the nuclear plant shows that “when Israel is left alone, it reacts and with extreme force,” he added.
Israel did not explain why it decided now to confirm its assault at Deir Ezzour, 280 miles (450 kilometers) northeast of Damascus, on the night between Sept. 5 and Sept. 6, 2007, after steadfastly refusing to acknowledge involvement. Foreign news outlets quickly identified Israel’s fingerprints after the attack, however, and later reported that the facility was built by North Korea with Iranian funding.
‘Deniability’
In its statement Wednesday, the Israeli army said military intelligence had been monitoring the Syrian nuclear project for two years. It concluded the facility would become active toward the end of 2007, and dispatched fighter jets to carry out the raid. Army Radio said 18 tons of explosives were dropped on the site.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said at the time that the attack targeted an unused military building. It denied developing a nuclear facility. In the course of Syria’s civil war, Deir Ezzour was captured by Islamic State, and it was only expelled in November by Syrian government forces.
By not acknowledging involvement, Israel let Assad maintain “deniability” so he would be less likely to attack in response, said Amos Yadlin, the head of military intelligence at the time of the strike. With the civil war, Assad now has “much more to worry about from other players than Israel,” said Yadlin, now director of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
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