IDF Cheif Kochavi: Return to Iran 2015 nuclear deal is strategic mistake

A return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, or a “slightly improved” deal would be an operational and strategic mistake for the world, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi warned on TuesdayHe said that Iran’s advanced centrifuge progress and jumps in enriching uranium could eventually bring it to be “only weeks” away from a nuclear bomb.

The deal would still allow the Islamic Republic to break out to a nuclear weapon in 2030 when the agreement expires.

The IDF chief said that the US and others must maintain all sanctions and pressure now as Tehran is at its weakest and closest to making real concessions.

In addition, he said that Israel’s strikes in Syria and other undefined parts of the Middle East had created the greatest deterrence Israel has ever known against its enemies.

Moreover, he said that the normalization trend is isolating Iran in ways that it never expected and was not prepared for.

Regarding other challenges, he issued a stark warning to both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza saying that Israel will strike every house that holds weapons in the event of a general war “with a deluge of strikes.”

Speaking from INSS’s annual conference, Kochavi said that these “terror armies” have decided to conceal their weapons in civilian areas on purpose (in every fifth house in Lebanon). He added that all civilians in those areas must immediately evacuate as soon as a general war starts because Israel will not give the terrorists immunity just because they hid among civilians.

“We will follow international law. We will warn them in Lebanon and Gaza to let them leave. I already warned you in Lebanon and Gaza, once war starts, we will let you leave the places you are in, the place you are in with missiles – and you know this,” he said.

But if civilians stayed it would be their fault.

Kochavi proposed redefining how international law and war are conceived of by instead of using the principle known as “proportionality,” thinking in terms of “the relative relationship” between an attack’s goals and the impact on civilians.

He said this rethinking is necessary in order to take on a world in which Hezbollah and Hamas have precision missiles far more powerful than anything anyone dreamed terror groups would ever get, while they also systematically abuse the laws of war by hiding the firing their weapons from civilian areas.

Part of what would aid the IDF both in destroying enemies’ rockets and avoiding civilian deaths would be new cutting edge intelligence capabilities.