Tel Aviv, Israel

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak predicted that Israel is likely to launch a large-scale airstrike against Iran's oil industry and possibly a symbolic attack on a military target related to its nuclear programme, the Guardian reported, on Friday (Oct 4). 

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Barak said that there was no doubt that Israel would not retaliate against Iran's Tuesday attack with over 180 ballistic missiles. 

“Israel has a compelling need, even an imperative, to respond. I think that no sovereign nation on Earth could fail to respond,” Barak said in an interview.

He further said that the model for the Israeli response could be seen in Sunday's reprisal airstrikes against Houthi-controlled air facilities, power plants and docks in the Yemeni port of Hodeidah. This comes a day after the Yemen-based militant group fired missiles aimed at Israel's international airport outside Tel Aviv.

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“I think we might see something like that. It might be a massive attack, and it could be repeated more than once," the former prime minister told Guardian. 

Also read: Khamenei, in first public address in 5 years, calls missile attack on Israel 'legal and legitimate'

Barak has also served as defence minister, foreign minister and army chief of staff, in the past. 

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The former PM noted that there had also been suggestions that Israel should make use of this opportunity, in reprisal for the Iranian attack and launch attacks against Iran's nuclear facilities. However, he argued it would not significantly set back the Iranian programme. 

Earlier on Thursday, United States President Joe Biden highlighted that there had been discussions in Washington about a possible Israeli attack on Iran's oil sector, however he did not give any details on whether the US would support such an assault.

During his tenure as defence minister, Barak was among Israel's most staunch advocates for bombing the Iranian nuclear facilities, trying and failing to convince former US Presidents George Bush and then Barack Obama, to contribute American military might to the campaign.

“There are some commentators and even some people within the defence establishment who raised the question: Why the hell not hit the nuclear military programme?” Barak said. “A little bit more than a decade ago, I was probably the most hawkish person in Israeli leadership arguing that it was worth considering very seriously, because there was an actual capability to delay them by several years."

“That’s not the case right now, because Iran is a de facto threshold country,” he argued. “They do not have yet a weapon – it may take them a year to have one, and even half a decade to have a small arsenal. Practically speaking, you cannot easily delay them in any significant manner.”

According to Barak, a significant Israeli military response to an Iranian missile attack is not unavoidable and justifiable, he argued that the drift to a regional war could have been avoided much earlier if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been open to a US-promoted plan to rally Arab support for a post-war Palestinian government in Gaza to replace Hamas. 

Watch | Israel-Iran War: Will Not Negotiate In Public On Israeli Strikes In Iran

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“I think that a strong response is inevitable. That doesn’t mean it was written in heaven a year ago that it’s going to happen,” Barak told the Guardian. “There were probably several opportunities to limit this conflict before it turned into something like a full-scale Middle East clash. For reasons that cannot be explained under any strategic thought, Netanyahu rejected any kind of discussion of what we call ‘the day after’". 

Disclaimer: WION takes the utmost care to accurately and responsibly report conflicts in West Asia involving Israel, Iran, Syria, Iraq, and non-state actors like the Islamic State, among others. In this context, claims and counterclaims are being made online and offline. WION cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, social media posts, photos, and videos.

(With inputs from agencies)