Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly assured US President Joe Biden that Israel only plans to strike military targets in Iran and not nuclear or oil facilities.
Israel-Iran War: According to the Washington Post, citing sources, Netanyahu told Biden on October 9 during a phone call that Israel was planning to only target military infrastructure in Iran. This means that Tel Aviv may follow “a more limited counterstrike aimed at preventing a full-scale war.”
The report notes that Netanyahu’s reported plan was met with relief in the White House. The report also emphasizes that if Israel attacks oil facilities in Iran, energy prices could rise dramatically.
An attack on Iranian nuclear facilities could trigger “further escalation” and increase the risk of the US being drawn into a wider conflict.
Earlier, Biden said that he did not consider it appropriate for Israel to strike nuclear facilities in Iran. According to sources, the newspaper says that Netanyahu was in a “more moderated place” in that discussion than he had previously been.
According to the publication, an Israeli strike on military targets in Iran is expected before the US presidential election, which will take place on November 5.
Iranian ‘Super Tankers’ Evacuate Largest Oil Terminal
As reported by EurAsian Times earlier, Iranian super-tankers have left Kharg Island, the country’s largest oil terminal, leaving the anchorage empty for the first time in recent history.
Reports from TankerTrackers, an international tanker tracking firm, claim that the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) appears to be fearing an imminent attack by Israel. On Wednesday, their empty Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) super-tankers departed from Kharg Island, Iran’s largest oil terminal. While crude oil loadings continue, all additional vacant shipping capacity has been cleared from the anchorage at Kharg Island.
Tanker Trackers noted that this is the first instance of such activity since the imposition of the 2018 sanctions.
Supporting this observation, Hunter brookrhi, an open-source investigative agency, analyzed 105 satellite passes since last November and confirmed that this is the first time the anchorage has been entirely vacant, highlighting that previous images show the presence of tankers.
