A top Iranian military official warned on Saturday of a "heavy price for aggressors," state media said, after a report of US and Israeli plans for possible military drills to prepare for strikes against Iran's nuclear sites if diplomacy fails.
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"Providing conditions for military commanders to test Iranian missiles with real targets will cost the aggressors a heavy price," Nournews, affiliated with Iran's top security body, said on Twitter, citing an unnamed military official.
A senior US official said on Thursday that US and Israeli defense chiefs were expected to discuss possible military exercises that would prepare for a worst-case scenario to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities should diplomacy fail and if their nations' leaders request it.
Britain told Iran on Sunday that there was still time for Tehran to save the nuclear deal but that this was the last chance for Iranian negotiators to come to the table with serious proposals.
"This is the last chance for Iran to come to the negotiating table with a serious resolution to this issue, which has to be agreeing to the terms of the JCPOA," British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.
"This is their last chance and it is vital that they do so. We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon," she said.
Germany's foreign minister warned on Saturday that time was running out to find a way to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, speaking after meetings with her counterparts from G7 countries.
Meanwhile, despite serious disagreements on how to best contain Iran's nuclear threat, Israel consulted with Washington before recently launching covert strikes against Iranian military sites, showing there was no daylight between the allies, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
The report cited Israeli and US officials briefed on the inner workings of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's and US President Joe Biden's respective governments.
It is understood that one of the attacks was against the centrifuge production facility in Karaj, and another against an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps missile plant on the outskirts of Tehran.
Overall, officials in Biden's administrations are finding that Israel under Bennett is much more transparent and cooperative than was the case under his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu.
There are, however, very real differences between Israelis and Americans on whether diplomatic engagement with Iran is worth pursuing; despite the many bumps in the talks between Iran and Western powers held in the Austrian capital of Vienna, Biden wishes to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which Israel believes to be inadequate to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.
According to the report, the worry in Jerusalem is that the US will eventually reach a deal with the Islamic republic, and then seek to block the Mossad spy agency from carrying out covert sabotage attacks.
Israel thus seeks a guarantee from the Biden administration that at no point will Washington try to restrain Israel's sabotage campaign, even in the unlikely event that a renewed nuclear deal is reached.
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