Iran was moving ballistic missile production into an industrial scale, and was about to become the top missile producer in the world, with intercontinental missiles able to reach European cities, including London, Israel Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said during an interview with The Times on Sunday.
Describing Israel's reasoning for conducting airstrikes on Iran, Marmorstein told The Times that "We actually acted because of two existential threats. One was nuclear, and we acted when we did because Iran was at the 11th hour of being able to build a bomb. But the other was the ballistic threat."
The US estimated Iran possessed approximately 3,000 ballistic missiles before Operation Rising Lion began, but was undergoing attempts to increase production to 20,000, Marmorstein stated, with missiles capable of carrying two-ton payloads, The Times noted.
When discussing the missile which killed four people in Beersheba on Tuesday shortly before the ceasefire came into effect, Marmorstein commented, "Imagine if Tehran sent 10,000 of those. That threat was as existential to us as a nuclear bomb."
Iran was getting "closer and closer" to a nuclear bomb, almost reaching "the point of no return," Marmorstein said.
Iran stepped us its nuclear program after Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September, Marmorstein claimed.
“On uranium enrichment, they had stockpiled enough for nine nuclear bombs, and we saw extreme acceleration on weaponisation. This was all part and parcel of a bigger plan for the annihilation of Israel with three elements — nuclear, ballistic, and physical invasion,” Marmorstein said.
Operation Rising Lion was "successful beyond our imaginations," he told The Times. "Just imagine the first night we took out the entire senior command of Iranian regime — think of the Nazis being deprived of the entire Wehrmacht command in the first days of World War Two," he commented.
“And these were surgical operations, getting to the right window at the right time, almost like James Bond,” he added.
Israel confident that Fordow was heavily damaged
Israel is confident that heavy damage was done by the US's bunker-buster strikes on Fordow nuclear facility. "It has been taken back years. The nuclear race has received a huge blow,” Marmorstein commented.
"The fact of the matter is the Iranian regime suffered huge blows not just to its nuclear and ballistic programme but to the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps], the Basij militia, and I think there is hope for something else," Marmorstein commented.
"Regime change was not part of this operation, that's for the Iranian people to decide," he added. "This is not a fight with the Iranian people but with the regime," he said.
“We took Iran’s nuclear programme years back but I’m not sure the nature of the regime’s ambitions have changed. The international community needs to demand that the regime refrain from any foolish attempt to try and resume,” Marmorstein said.