Former commander of the British military forces in Afghanistan speaks with Arutz Sheva about the achievements of Operation Rising Lion so far.
Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of the British military forces in Afghanistan, spoke to Israel National News – Arutz Sheva about Operation Rising Lion, the military operation launched at the end of last week to cripple Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Col. Kemp praised Israel’s accomplishments in Iran since the operation began early Friday morning. “Israel has achieved strategically important success in a very short time. The elimination of so many members of Iran’s military hierarchy is a devastating blow that will leave the regime reeling. It will be very hard or impossible to replace their expertise any time soon. The same goes for the elimination of the nuclear scientists. It seems Israel has severely diminished offensive weapons capability, including knocking out at least one-third of its ballistic missile launchers. The Director General of the IAEA assesses all 15,000 centrifuges at Natanz have been severely damaged or destroyed in air strikes.”
He believes that it was necessary for Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities when it did. “Before the war began, Israel had received intelligence confirming Iran had commenced weaponisation of highly enriched uranium, a new step. At the same time, the IAEA confirmed Iran had enough 60% enriched uranium for 10 or so bombs and that could be further enriched to weapons grade within 2 weeks. That made a military strike essential. Imagine if just one of Iran’s ballistic missiles that have been fired into Israel had a nuclear warhead. Potentially huge numbers killed. That’s why this operation was necessary, not just for Israel but for the region and the world.
In contrast to the effectiveness of Israel’s strikes inside Iran, he stated that “Iran’s response has been weak. It has fired 350-370 ballistic missiles and many drones. The vast majority have been knocked out by Israel’s air defences, something like 90%. Only 24 people — all civilians — have been killed. That is, of course, tragic, but it’s hardly the devastating attack Iran has promised in response to Israel’s preemptive attack.”
Col. Kemp noted that Iran was a threat to more than just Israel. “The whole world benefits from what Israel is doing, especially dealing with Iran’s nuclear program. But also Iran’s region-wide and worldwide terrorism which has killed thousands of people in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, in Europe and as far afield as Argentina. Iran is the number one state supporter of global terrorism and has been working to destabilise the Middle East.”
Addressing the global response to the recent conflict between Israel and Iran, he stated that, “The US has stood staunchly alongside Israel. It has provided vital munitions and has aided Israel’s air defence. It has now deployed additional air and naval assets to the Middle East. European countries have been far weaker, including the UK and others calling for de-escalation at exactly the wrong time. Of course, Israel won’t listen to this defeatism, but it is the worst approach. They should have done all they can diplomatically and practically to support Israel’s campaign. It is encouraging to see Britain deploying air assets to the region and hopefully, if necessary, they will be used to aid Israel’s defence as they did when Iran attacked last year.”
When asked about the Fordow nuclear facility, believed to be the most difficult of Iran’s nuclear facilities to strike because of its location beneath a mountain, he responded that, “The Israeli National Security Adviser has said Fordow can be dealt with by Israel alone. As a minimum, Israel can inflict significant damage to this facility and perhaps knock it out completely using its own capabilities.”
When asked at what point Israel should end Operation Rising Lion, he stated that, “Israel will need to keep attacking until it considers it has done sufficient damage to Iran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missile and drone capabilities. The duration can only be decided on a day to day basis by the IDF, depending on their assessment of battle damage after each strike or strike series.”
The operation, despite its successes, could ultimately not be a permanent solution to the Iranian threat or its nuclear ambitions, as Col. Kemp noted, “It is entirely possible that the Iranian regime will fall as a result of Israel’s operations. That doesn’t mean that a successor regime would not want to pursue nuclear weapons but there would be an unprecedented opportunity to put a stop to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. If the regime survives it may well return to a nuclear project. But that will have been set back for many years including by eliminating much of the expertise by killing some of the most senior nuclear scientists.”
“No military or political action can guarantee peace, security or the removal of threats in perpetuity. The important thing is to confront such threats when they occur and that is exactly what Israel is doing now in the face of a failure of the international community to step up before,” Col. Kemp concluded.
