WashPo: Netanyahu Tells U.S. That Israel Will Not Strike Iranian Nuclear or Oil Sites

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Biden administration he is willing to strike military rather than oil or nuclear facilities in Iran, according to two officials familiar with the matter, suggesting a more limited counterstrike aimed at preventing a full-scale war.

In the two weeks since Iran’s latest missile barrage on Israel, its second direct attack in six months, the Middle East has braced for Israel’s promised response, fearing the two countries’ decades-long shadow war could explode into a head-on military confrontation. It comes at a politically fraught time for Washington, less than a month before the election, and President Joe Biden has said publicly he would not support an Israeli strike on nuclear-related sites.

When Biden and Netanyahu spoke Wednesday — their first call in more than seven weeks after months of rising tensions between the two men — the prime minister said he was planning to target military infrastructure in Iran, according to a U.S. official and an official familiar with the matter. Like others in this story, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.

[...] The retaliatory action would be calibrated to avoid the perception of “political interference in the U.S. elections,” the official familiar with the matter said, signaling Netanyahu’s understanding that the scope of the Israeli strike has the potential to reshape the presidential race.

An Israeli strike on Iranian oil facilities could send energy prices soaring, analysts say, while an attack on the country’s nuclear research program could erase any remaining red lines governing Israel’s conflict with Tehran, triggering further escalation and risking a more direct U.S. military role. Netanyahu’s stated plan to go after military sites instead, as Israel did after Iran’s attack in April, was met with relief in Washington.

Iran signaled to the US that it is ready to leave a possible Israeli strike unanswered if it is limited, the Israeli government-owned broadcaster Kan reported.

According to the report, Tehran sent this message to Washington "through a third country." Iran notified the US that "if Israel's response to the [previous Iranian] ballistic missile attack is limited to certain targets, Iran would consider this round closed and would not respond," Kan said.

According to Kan, the "behind-the-scenes" message from Iran to the US differs from the Iranian public statements, which threaten a painful response to a possible Israeli strike.