Iran’s list of “sensitive” sites includes the Knesset, government buildings, warehouses, facilities and institutions.
https://www.jpost.com/-By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and military commanders watch as military equipment passes by during a ceremony of the National Army Day parade in Tehran, Iran April 18, 2022. (credit: REUTERS)
Under the guise of reporting on what Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen recently discussed, media close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps appeared to publish a list of “sensitive” sites that it believes could be targeted in a future war. The report lists a variety of buildings and sites in Israel in a clearly intended threat to the Jewish state.
Tasnim news wrote on Monday that, “in this regard, Al-Mayadeen network has published a report on the analysis of Israel’s target bank and the sensitive positions of this regime that can be targeted in any war. At the beginning of this report, the general situation of the Zionist regime at the military level and its equipment has been examined.”
The article then includes a list of sites in Israel. This includes the Knesset, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Defense Ministry, and a series of other sites. This includes what Tasnim News characterizes as “nuclear sites and facilities.” In the list of “warehouses” and facilities, the report includes a Rafael Advanced Defense Systems site in Haifa and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot as well as the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.
Then the report examines “airports and military and intelligence bases.” It mentions “civilian” airports such as Ben-Gurion International Airport, and the Ramon airport near Eilat. Then it lists a number of military bases. The report clearly lists civilian areas, institutions and facilities that Iran believes are sensitive to Israel in terms of civilian and military research, and the military-industrial complex.
This appears to be one of the few times that Iranian media close to the regime has so openly published what it claims is a target list of Israeli sites that could be targeted in a future war – and what Iran and its proxies are thinking these days regarding their potential targeting priorities in Israel.
In the last conflict with Hamas, the terror group claimed to have targeted the Ramon Airport. Operations at the airport were briefly suspended during that conflict. Hamas also appeared to target other sites that have infrastructure, using large-scale salvos of rockets to try to overwhelm the Iron Dome defense system. Hezbollah has also made threats regarding targeting Israel’s infrastructure, including threatening gas rigs off the coast and industrial sites near Haifa.
What does Iran mean for this list to do?
The overall context then of Iran can be seen as merely bragging and threatening but also illustrates the shift in thinking in Tehran and among Iran’s proxy groups, which include Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Houthis in Yemen and members of the Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq. Recent reports that an Iranian IRGC member linked to Iran’s drone program was killed in Syria and that Iran wants to move air defense systems to Syria show the Islamic Republic’s possible concerns regarding these latest tensions and threats.
Publishing the kind of list that Iran’s pro-regime media published on Monday, listing sites that Iran thinks are sensitive, is a message to Israel. It can also be illustrating how Tehran views the conflict with Israel as entering a strategic stage in which it would like to supply proxy groups in Lebanon and Syria with more advanced weapons, such as drones or precision-guided munitions, that can target the sites that Iran and Al-Mayadeen have come up with. Iran has increased its drone threats to Israel in recent years and works closely with Hamas and Hezbollah to try to learn from past conflicts and tensions with the Jewish state.