TEHRAN – U.S. officials have warned the occupying regime of Israel against any attack on Iranian nuclear sites, saying an aggression would be counterproductive and prompt the Islamic Republic to rebuild an even more sophisticated and efficient uranium enrichment system, the New York Times reports.
According to the paper, the U.S. praised the Zionist regime for attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz and assassinating Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh last year as “tactically satisfying,” but said they were “ultimately counterproductive”.
Officials familiar with the behind-the-scenes discussion between Washington and Tel Aviv said that Zionist officials dismissed the warnings, the Times said.
The report said the matter was among many disagreements between the United States and Israel on how to stop Tehran’s civilian nuclear program.
Further complicating the issues was the fact that Iran has apparently managed to improve its defenses, particularly in the cyberspace, the New York Times report said, meaning that launching cyber attacks like the one by the malicious Stuxnet computer virus that was created jointly by the United States and the occupying regime of Israel to damage Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities, was no longer as effective.
As a consequence, cyber attacks against Iran’s nuclear program have become “much harder now to pull off,” the report pointed out.
With the “fading chance of Washington’s return to the 2015 nuclear deal” – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the United States was examining the possibility of hammering out an interim deal with Iran, the Times report said.
“Inside the White House, there has been a scramble in recent days to explore whether some kind of interim deal might be possible to freeze Iran’s production of more enriched uranium and its conversion of that fuel to metallic form,” the paper added.
“In return, the United States might ease a limited number of

sanctions. That would not solve the problem. But it might buy time for negotiations, while holding off Israeli threats to bomb Iranian facilities.”
Iran has on occasions warned the Tel Aviv regime against any adventurism toward the Islamic Republic amid renewed Israeli threats of “nuclear terrorism”.
Back on October 24, Iran’s security chief brushed aside reports about Israel’s budget for a potential attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, saying the regime must consider the colossal cost of repair after Tehran’s “shocking” response.
The Times of Israel, citing a report published by Channel 12, reported earlier that Zionist officials had approved a budget of five billion shekels ($1.5 billion) to purchase high-powered weapons and equipment in preparation for a possible attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Around $600 million would be added to the previous $900 million budget for acquiring aircraft, intelligence-gathering drones, and weapons that could destroy heavily fortified underground sites, the report said.
“Instead of allocating 1.5 billion dollars budget for atrocities against #Iran, the Zionist regime should focus on providing tens of thousands of billion dollars funding to repair the damage that is going to be caused by Iran’s shocking response,” Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said in tweets he posted in Persian, Arabic, English, and Hebrew on Sunday.