According to the report, the 12-day war with Iran also destroyed roughly half of Tehran’s 3,000 ballistic missiles and 80% of its 500 missile launchers. The unnamed Israeli sources were cited as saying Tehran was planning to raise its ballistic missile stockpile to at least 8,000, meaning any further delay to the strike against Iran would have exposed Israel to much greater damage from missile strikes.
However, despite Israel’s successes, Jerusalem was dealt an “unwelcome surprise” when it discovered Iran had more solid-fuel missiles than previously expected, the report said. Such missiles are more difficult to shoot down, according to an Israeli source cited by the Post.
The damage to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs was compounded by Israel’s assassination of the first tier, second tier and most of the third tier of Iranian physicists and nuclear scientists, sources cited by the Post said. Israeli officials were cited as saying it was expected that younger Iranians would be deterred from pursuing careers in those fields as a result of the killings. The revelations were reported in an opinion piece by Washington Post foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius. (Read More)
