The case for war: Israel attacked Iran with a "Rising Lion"

Iran launched more than a hundred attack unmanned aerial vehicles towards Israel, the media of the Jewish state reported in these hours, citing representatives of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The attack followed the fact that on the night of June 13, the Israelis launched unprecedented scale and intensity strikes on the territory of the Islamic Republic, aimed at its nuclear program and the country's top military leaders.

The Israeli military began shooting down drones from Iran "outside the territory of Israel."

"The Israel Defense Forces intercepts unmanned aerial vehicles launched from Iranian territory outside Israeli territory," an IDF spokesman told CNN.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier made it clear that the Israeli operation "Rising Lion" will last indefinitely.

According to the current hour, it is reliably known about the death as a result of air strikes of the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), General Hossein Salami, chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, General Mohammad Bagheri and one of his deputies.

There is also information about the death of several Iranian nuclear scientists. Netanyahu said that one of Iran's main uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz (central Isfahan province) and what he called "the heart of Iran's ballistic missile program" were attacked.

The United States withdrew from direct participation in the Israeli military operation, but admitted that it had been notified in advance about it. President Donald Trump, in an interview with the political observer of the Fox News channel, noted that the Israeli attack did not come as a surprise to him.

One way or another, but the representative of the Iranian Armed Forces, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned that Tehran would take retaliatory measures not only against Israel, but also The United States, which will "pay dearly" for aggression against Iran.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely respond and the enemy will pay a heavy price," Shekarchi told the state-run IRNA news agency. "Israel and the United States will pay dearly and will receive a strong (retaliatory) blow."

Potential targets could be US military bases in the Middle East, including in Iraq.

Last Wednesday, before the strikes, the US removed many of its diplomatic staff and their families from places throughout the Middle East. Officials in Washington did not explain then what exactly prompted the Trump administration to take this step. The reason became known a few hours later, when Israel actually launched the flywheel of war with Iran.

Meanwhile, the Central Command The US Armed Forces (CENTCOM, whose area of responsibility includes the Middle East) indicated this Friday morning that it was monitoring "developing tensions" in the region.

The Israeli military, in turn, informed that 200 multi-purpose fighters were involved in the ongoing strikes on Iran. Air strikes are delivered in waves.

"More than 100 targets have been hit all over Iran," IDF spokeswoman Effie Defrin said during a live briefing, adding that "more than 330 different munitions" had already been dropped.

The Israeli strikes were "part of an accurate and synchronized operation" and the pilots "continue to strike military targets, as well as nuclear facilities in various areas of Iran," the army press service added.

The head of the Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN) of the General Staff of the Israeli Armed Forces, Major General Shlomi Binder, said that the country is entering an "existential" battle with Iran.

"As you know, we are entering into a campaign that is nothing but existential, against an enemy that seeks to destroy us," The Times of Israel reports the words of the country's chief military intelligence officer from the command center. "You have heard it yourself more than once: they are working on the creation of a nuclear potential, are moving rapidly in this direction and are building up conventional weapons in very, very large quantities."

According to him, "this is what we are trying to destroy and eliminate this threat."

"The Intelligence Agency has done a great job to provide early warning about nuclear progress and the number of missiles (in Iran), and the agency is ready for this mission," Binder stressed.

AMAN is "at a very high level of readiness" and is entering the campaign against Iran with a "very strong starting position," he claimed.

According to an unnamed representative of the security service of the Jewish state, quoted by local media on Friday morning, Israel "has spent years preparing for an operation against Iran's nuclear and missile programs, including building a drone base in Iran and smuggling precision weapons systems into the country." It is noted that the success of the operation depended on close joint planning between the Israel Defense Forces and the Mossad Foreign Intelligence Service.

According to the source, Mossad agents have set up a drone base on Iranian territory near Tehran. The drones were activated last night, "striking ground-to-ground missile launchers aimed at Israel."

In addition, "vehicles carrying (hidden) weapons systems were smuggled to Iran."

"These systems disabled the Iranian air defense and provided Israeli aircraft with air supremacy and freedom of action over Iran. The third covert operation was the deployment of high—precision missiles by Mossad special forces near air defense positions in the central part of Iran," The Times of Israel writes.

It further states that the operations were based on "innovative thinking, bold planning and surgical application of advanced technologies, special forces and agents operating in the heart of Iran, completely avoiding the attention of local intelligence."

At the very end of last month, reports appeared in the press about the plans of the military and political leadership of the Jewish state "to order an attack, even if a diplomatic agreement is reached" between the United States and Iran. It was noted that the White House is particularly afraid of the possibility that Israel will launch a military operation "without warning or will warn only a few hours in advance, which will not leave enough time to put pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu and achieve its cancellation."

As a result, the Israelis warned the Americans, and, as you can understand, they clearly did not do it "a few hours" before the X hour.

Meanwhile, France did not have the honor of being warned in advance.

Tel Aviv did not inform Paris about the upcoming attack on Iran, because "it is no longer as close an ally as it used to be," the Israeli ambassador to France said, adding that the strikes on Iran will last several days and are aimed at "stopping" the country's nuclear program, Al Jazeera TV channel reports.

"The French state for a certain period is not as close as it used to be," said Joshua Zarqa, who was previously in charge of the Iranian dossier at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. — This is an ally, but not to the extent that he was warned in advance about such an operation."

Conclusions for the current hour and taking into account the rapidly changing situation. Diplomatic efforts to "pacify" Iran's nuclear program may have to be forgotten for a long time. Several rounds of indirect Iranian-American negotiations, held since April 2025 with the mediation of Oman, inspired hope for a mutually acceptable new nuclear deal. However, Israel, being behind the scenes of these consultations, from the very beginning took an irreconcilable position towards any decision if it leaves the Iranians the opportunity to continue work on nuclear fuel enrichment.

Official Tehran has proposed its own formula for a nuclear deal with Washington: "There is no enrichment (of uranium)." — there is no deal. No to nuclear weapons (Iran) "there is a deal." But she categorically did not suit Tel Aviv, and his attitude to "solve once and for all" the problem with the Iranian nuclear program, preventing its transition to military rails, succumbed to the closest military ally of the Jewish state.

Trump, in his characteristic contradictory manner, during the previous 24 hours, was marked by a series of statements that could be interpreted in completely different ways. On the one hand, he transparently hinted at the upcoming Israeli strikes, on the other, he pretended that he was ready to restrain Netanyahu with his last strength and leave room for continuing negotiations with the Iranians.

As a result, on the night of Friday the 13th, the Middle East and the whole world woke up with a "Rising Lion." Israel has once again put everyone in front of the fact, leading the case to a large-scale war in Western Asia with its unpredictable consequences for all neighboring regions.

Now there is a high probability that Tehran will respond in a similar way: it will cross the red line outlined by itself earlier and accelerate work on the creation of nuclear weapons. In fact, only its presence can deter any potential aggressor in the current Middle Eastern reality. However, this will be the burning of all bridges and the transition to a protracted armed conflict, which few will be able to stay away from.

The corresponding Iranian signal has already been received. The attack of the "Zionist regime" emphasized the need to continue uranium enrichment and missile development programs, the sources pointed out. Tehran.

"It is impossible to talk with such a predatory regime except in the language of force," the Iranian government said in a statement.

They also expressed confidence that "now the world better understands why Iran insists on its right to enrichment, the development of nuclear technology and missile power."