PRESS RELEASE: New Report Says U.S. Must Initiate Preparations to Support an Israeli Strike on Iran
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2025
Washington, DC – With incredibly long odds of achieving a diplomatic solution that actually ends Iran’s nuclear program, and with Israel intent on exercising a military option, a new report says time has run out and the United States must be prepared, not only for the immediate aftermath of a strike targeting Iran’s nuclear program, but have a strategy to limit the risk of a wider war.
Last Best Chance: U.S. Policy for an Israeli Strike on Iran, a new report released today by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, provides a comprehensive “no daylight” strategy for close U.S.-Israel cooperation on a military strike and its aftermath. Working together, the two countries must maximize the effectiveness of a full campaign, not a one-off strike, against Iran’s expansive nuclear infrastructure. And they must work together to prevent major Iranian retaliation and keep it from renewing its nuclear drive.
“Ideally, direct U.S.-Iran talks will quickly produce a deal to dismantle Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, but the odds of success are incredibly low,” said JINSA President and CEO Michael Makovsky. “The president has repeatedly said the U.S. can’t tolerate a nuclear Iran, which would threaten our allies, America’s position in the Mideast, and ultimately the eastern seaboard of the U.S.”
To address this threat and limit the fallout, the report recommends:
- The United States, ideally, would be a full partner with Israel, or at a minimum provide it with essential support, in both the strike itself and in managing the aftermath.
- In addition to transferring critical capabilities to Israel, the Trump administration should offer aerial refueling, combat search and rescue, intelligence, air defense, and preemptive action against potential Iranian ballistic missile retaliation.
- Washington should warn Iran that any major retaliation will put at direct risk the regime itself, including its political, military, and economic centers of gravity.
- Washington and Jerusalem also must make clear they have prepared economic, diplomatic, military, and covert means to prevent Iran from trying to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program after any strike.
“Iran wants slow-moving, inconclusive, and indirect talks with the Trump administration to making its nuclear weapons infrastructure even more advanced, opaque, and invulnerable to threats,” said Jonathan Ruhe, JINSA Director of Foreign Policy. “Dragging out diplomacy also buys Tehran precious time to rebuild its shattered defenses and missile arsenals, and thereby close its current window of vulnerability to U.S.-Israeli military action.”
To influence Iran’s decision making, the report includes recommendations for the Trump administration and Congress that would send a unified signal to Tehran that any escalation will result in further U.S.-led military, diplomatic, economic, and covert action.
The only hope for preventing a nuclear Iran at this late stage, diplomatically or otherwise, is to eliminate all daylight between the United States and Israel.
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