If President Trump opts against launching a strike on Iran’s primary underground enrichment facility at Fordow, Israel has several strategies to target Iran’s nuclear enrichment site, located beneath a mountain south of Tehran.
One strategy involves deploying elite Israeli Air Force commandos from Unit 5101, known as Shaldag, which translates from Hebrew as kingfisher—a bird renowned for its patience and ability to dive deep underwater to seize its prey.
In September, members of this
In 2008, when it became apparent that Israeli F-16s could not hit Iran’s nuclear sites, Yadlin tasked Mossad with finding an alternative method to disable Iran’s uranium enrichment at Natanz. Two years later, this led to the introduction of Stuxnet by Israeli and American cyber operatives, a malicious worm that made countless Natanz centrifuges malfunction, disrupting Iran’s nuclear progress.
More recently, retired Maj. Gen. Yadlin served as the head of Israel’s Military Intelligence in 2007, when Israel blew up a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor that the world did not know about. (Amos Yadlin)
The decision to strike Fordow, the crown jewel and heart of Iran’s nuclear program, is different, and Israel prefers the U.S. to use its B-2 stealth bombers and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.
“Anybody who wants the war to be over soon, to be finished quickly, have to find a way to deal with Fordow,” Yadlin said. “Those who think that attacking Fordow will escalate the war, in my judgment, it can de-escalate and terminate the war.”
And it could serve as a deterrent to China and Russia, who will see the power and capability of the U.S. military’s unique capability.
Another option would be to cut power to Fordow. Without power, the centrifuges enriching the uranium could become permanently disabled.
When asked if Israel could take out Fordow without American B-2 bombers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox’s Bret Baier in an exclusive interview last Sunday, “We have quite a few startups too and quite a few rabbits up our sleeve. And I don’t think that I should get into that.”
