What is the “crown jewel” Netanyahu is keeping hidden if the Iran war resumes?

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered Washington to take on the task of carrying out a “commando” operation to seize enriched uranium from its hiding place in Iran, making it the “crown jewel” for ending the war.

These reports circulating in Tel Aviv on Wednesday come at a time when assessments prevail that US President Donald Trump may, in the coming days, settle his position on the future of the confrontation with Iran, amid a conviction that China will not help him end the war in the way he wants.

Avi Ashkenazi, the military correspondent for Maariv, said that “the direction in Israel is to send the Israeli Air Force’s commando unit (Shaldag) on this dangerous mission,” noting that it “has previously proven its worth in another operation no less dangerous and sensitive.”

Members of the Shaldag unit carried out a special operation on September 8, 2024, in the heart of Iranian territory, codenamed “Many Are the Ways,” which resulted in the destruction of a missile site.

At the time, the Israeli soldiers reached sensitive machinery used to manufacture modern, high-precision missiles before destroying it in an explosion felt by local residents, according to the Israeli newspaper. The Israeli military officially boasted of the operation.

Ashkenazi said: “Shaldag fighters can repeat what they did not only in Iran, but anywhere else. It depends only on a decision from the political leadership in Israel and the United States.”

Netanyahu was asked about the matter earlier this week during an interview with the US network CBS, when he said that the most dangerous issue in the Iranian file remains the matter of uranium enriched to 60 percent, enough to begin moving toward making a nuclear bomb. He said: “We go in and take it out of there (...) That is the best way.”

“China will do nothing”

According to Israel’s Channel 12, the security establishment and the political leadership in Israel estimate that Trump may make his decision immediately upon returning from his visit to China at the end of the week, at a time when conviction is growing inside Israel that contacts between the United States and Iran “will not mature” and will not lead to understandings. Therefore, belief is growing that the war will resume.

Israeli assessments suggest that Trump will determine his position on the confrontation in the coming days, amid preparations for a possible escalation against Iran at the end of the current week, which “could quickly develop” as talks between Washington and Tehran falter.