Brit terror expert says Israel must attack Iran soon and ignore de-escalation calls

A British terror expert has declared Israel must seize the moment of dominance over Hezbollah, attack Iran soon and ignore calls for de-escalation.

Colonel Richard Kemp, former adviser to the , said not responding to Iran’s missile attack a week ago would be to “surrender”. As the Middle East awaits ’s attack he said likely Iranian targets are military sites, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and even the Tehran regime.

Kemp, who has been in Israel for a year monitoring the growing crisis, said ground fighting in Lebanon is bitter and battles are still raging in Gaza. And he said a secret deal to exile Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to a foreign country might bring forward a long-awaited period of peace.

He told the in Tel Aviv: “This is the last moment for Israel to de escalate. Israel has decapitated Hezbollah to a very large extent including the main man Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah is in a state of disarray.

“Going back since Hezbollah started its offensive on October 8 last year, and coming right up to date, including, of course, the well known pager and walkie talkie attacks on Hezbollah. So Hezbollah is in chaos now, and this is the right time to push home Israel’s success with that organisation.

“Of course, Hezbollah is still effective. It still has many fighters, and it has huge numbers of rockets and drones ready to fire at Israel, and indeed has been doing so even in the last day, including attacks against here in Tel Aviv.

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“So Hezbollah needs to be finished off as rapidly as possible, and this is the opportunity. And as for Iran, also, Israel is in the ideal position now to strike Iran and hit them very, very hard. So it’s not the time to de escalate. De-escalation, actually, in this situation means surrender, and Israel should not even contemplate that.”

Asked which targets Israel will aim for he said: “The most likely targets for their counter attack against Iran, which they must do, and I believe they should be doing imminently are military targets, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps which is responsible for the rocket attacks against Israel, among other things, and also for financing, funding, directing and organising the Iranian proxies around the regions that have been attacking Israel.

“So military targets are perhaps the most likely. But then also, there are other possibilities, that includes Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure, which are also ripe targets for attack, and legitimate targets for attack as well, because it’s that industry that finances Iran’s terror campaign against Israel and across the region.

"Finally, I think you have the nuclear infrastructure in Iran, which Iran is now on the cusp of having the capability of delivering at least ten nuclear weapons, either at Israel or other countries in the Middle East.

“Of course, there is the kind of almost the ballistic option, if you call it that, which is to decapitate the regime, to kill Ayatollah Khomeini and some of his lieutenants. Israel, I believe, has the capability but I think probably that’s less likely than the other three options I mentioned.”

On Sinwar he added: “As for Sinwar he said: “I think the broad opinion is that he’s probably still alive and hiding in a tunnel somewhere and the potential for him to leave and to get out to save his skin, I think, is there. And it was, this was originally, I think, an consideration at an early stage that they would maybe encourage some of the senior leadership of Hamas to leave Gaza.

“I would say it would be a good idea to get Sinwar out, because it could defuse to some extent, the conflict, it might possibly lead to a shortening of the conflict. And of course, Sinwar, who was the main architect of October 7 can be dealt with at Israel’s leisure.”