Senior official: Israel is weakening Iran at home

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says he told US President Joe Biden that Israel reserved the right to act against Iran how it sees fit, whether or not the sides re-enter the 2015 nuclear pact.

“I clarified, and I’m pleased that he also clarified it explicitly, that Israel will reserve freedom of action in any situation,” Bennett tells reporters in a briefing, only part of which he allows to be reported on the record.

Bennett admits that the message is not new, but says he presented it this time with a “slightly new dimensions and angles,” without elaborating.

A senior diplomatic source also tells reporters that 70 percent of Israel’s problems come from Iran, and so Israel is engaged in a long-term effort to weaken the Islamic Republic economically, in order to drain its ability to export terror to Israel’s borders.

“Our goal is to harass them at home, so they will be busy with that,” the official says, noting that Iran’s support of Hezbollah and Gazan terror groups had the same goal against Israel. “So they will be weaker and will have less money and energy.”

The official calls it a change in tactic after a previously singular focus on the country’s nuclear ambitions.

“The weakening is primarily economic, through a number of activities, financial, diplomatic, preemptory actions, covert and open, in cyberspace and other areas,” he says.