[
lecturer
From cyberattacks and assassinations to drone strikes, conspiracies linked to Israel have focused Iran and its nuclear program for years.
Israel's leaders have indicated they’re contemplating their choices on how to answer Iran's assault on Sunday morning, when Tehran focused its arch enemy with greater than 300 missiles and drones.
Iran's assault, which follows final week's Israeli assault on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria, was historic: it was the primary time that Tehran had instantly focused Israeli soil, regardless of a long time of hostility. By Sunday, a number of of Iran's allies within the so-called axis of resistance – notably the Palestinian group Hamas, the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis and armed teams in Iraq and Syria – had been the identical ones that launched missiles and drones at Israel.
But when Israel had been to retaliate militarily inside Iran, it might not be the primary time. removed from it.
For years, Israel has centered on one goal particularly inside Iran: the nation's nuclear program. Israel has lengthy accused Iran of secretly constructing a nuclear bomb that might threaten its existence — and publicly, and sometimes, has used its diplomatic and intelligence-driven efforts to derail these alleged efforts. Talks about. Iran denies that it has a navy nuclear program, whereas arguing that it has a proper to entry civilian nuclear vitality.
As Israel prepares its response, right here's a take a look at the collection of assaults in Iran – from drone strikes and cyberattacks to the homicide of scientists and theft of secrets and techniques – that Israel has both admitted it was behind Or he’s accused of conspiracy.
Murders of Iranian scientists
- January 2010: Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a physics professor on the College of Tehran, was assassinated by the use of a remote-controlled bomb planted in his motorbike. Iranian authorities media claimed that America and Israel had been behind this assault. The Iranian authorities described Ali-Mohammadi as a nuclear scientist.
- November 2010: Majid Shahriari, a professor on the nuclear engineering college of Shahid Beheshti College in Tehran, died in a automobile explosion whereas on his solution to work. His spouse was additionally injured. Iran's president on the time, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, blamed the USA and Israel for the assaults.
- January 2012: Chemical engineering graduate Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed by a bomb positioned on his automobile by a motorcyclist in Tehran. Iran blamed Israel and the US for the assault and stated Ahmadi Roshan was a nuclear scientist who supervised a division at Iran's major uranium enrichment facility within the metropolis of Natanz.
- November 2020:Distinguished nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in a roadside assault exterior Tehran. Western and Israeli intelligence had lengthy suspected that Fakhrizadeh was the originator of the Iranian nuclear weapons program. He was sanctioned by the United Nations in 2007 and the US in 2008.
- Might 2022: Colonel Hassan Seyyed Khodai of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was shot 5 occasions exterior his dwelling in Tehran. Majid Mirhamadi, a member of Iran's Supreme Nationwide Safety Council, alleged that the assassination was “positively the work of Israel”.
Israel's cyber assault on Iran
- June 2010:The Stuxnet virus was present in computer systems at a nuclear plant within the metropolis of Bushehr, Iran, and it unfold from there to different amenities. By September 2010, greater than 30,000 computer systems in at the least 14 amenities had been affected. In accordance with an estimate by the Institute for Science and Worldwide Safety, at the least 1,000 of the 9,000 centrifuges at Iran's Natanz enrichment facility had been destroyed. Following the investigation, Iran blamed Israel and the US for the virus assault.
- April 2011: A virus referred to as STARS was found by the Iranian Cyberdefense Company, which stated the malware was designed to infiltrate and trigger harm to Iran's nuclear amenities. In accordance with Gholamreza Jalali, head of Iran's defunct Protection Group, the virus copied official authorities recordsdata and brought about “minor harm” to pc methods. Iran blamed Israel and America.
- November 2011: Iran stated it has found a brand new virus referred to as Duke, based mostly on Stuxnet. Specialists stated Duke's function was to assemble information for future cyber assaults. The Iranian authorities introduced that it was inspecting computer systems at key nuclear websites. Specialists imagine that the Duke spyware and adware is expounded to Israel.
- April 2012: Iran blamed the US and Israel for malware referred to as Wiper that wiped the onerous drives of computer systems owned by the Petroleum Ministry and the Nationwide Iranian Oil Firm.
- Might 2012: Iran introduced {that a} virus referred to as Flame had tried to steal authorities information from authorities computer systems. The Washington Submit reported that Israel and the US had used it to assemble intelligence. Then-Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon didn’t verify the nation's involvement, however acknowledged that Israel would use all means to “harm the Iranian nuclear system”.
- October 2018: The Iranian authorities blamed Israel for the assault, saying it had blocked a brand new era of Stuxnet assaults.
- October 2021: A cyberattack hit the system that permits Iranians to make use of government-issued playing cards to purchase gasoline at a reduced price, affecting all 4,300 petrol stations in Iran. Customers needed to both pay the common value, greater than double the backed value, or watch for the stations to reconnect to the central distribution system. Iran blamed Israel and America.
- Might 2020: A cyber assault affected computer systems controlling maritime visitors on the Shahid Razai port on Iran's southern coast within the Gulf, inflicting a halt to ships ready to dock. The Washington Submit quoted US officers as saying that Israel was behind the assault, though Israel didn’t declare duty.
Israel's drone strikes and assaults on Iran
- January 2018: Mossad brokers raid a safe Tehran facility and steal labeled nuclear data. In April 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced that Israel had found 100,000 “secret recordsdata that show” that Iran lied about by no means having a nuclear weapons program.
- february 2022: Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett admitted in an op-ed printed in The Wall Avenue Journal in December 2023 that Israel attacked an unmanned aerial automobile and killed a senior IRGC commander in February final yr.
- Might 2022: Quadcopter suicide drones loaded with explosives attacked the Parchin navy advanced southeast of Tehran, killing an engineer and damaging a constructing the place drones had been developed by the Protection Ministry and the armed forces. IRGC commander Hussein Salami promised to retaliate in opposition to unspecified “enemies”.
- January 2023: A number of suicide drones attacked a navy facility in central Isfahan, however had been foiled and brought about no harm. Whereas Iran didn’t instantly assign blame for the assaults, Iran's UN envoy, Amir Saeed Iravani, wrote a letter to the UN chief saying that “the preliminary investigation confirmed that Israel was accountable”.
- February 2024:A pure fuel pipeline was attacked in Iran. Iran's Oil Minister Javad Ovji alleged that “the explosion of the fuel pipeline was an Israeli conspiracy”.