Senior Israeli security officials believe that the election of Iranian hardliner Ebrahim Raisi as president leaves Israel no choice in preparing plans to continue attacks against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Channel 12 News reported.

According to the report, Raisi, known as the Butcher of Tehran for the thousands of people he executed, supports a return to the 2015 nuclear deal in exchange for the relief of sanctions. However, Israel estimates that the US won’t sign the agreement until August, when Raisi enters office, and meanwhile, Iran will continue to increase its stockpile of enriched uranium.

“There’s no choice now but to return to preparing attack plans for Iran’s nuclear program,” an anonymous Israeli security force was quoted as saying. “It will require a budget and the reallocation of resources.”

The US, despite stating on Saturday that the “Iranians were denied their right to choose their own leaders in a free and fair electoral process,” will nevertheless continue indirect talks with Iran on rejoining the nuclear deal.

The London-based Amnesty International issued a statement over the weekend stating that Raisi was a member of “Death Commission” that secretly executed thousands of opposition prisoners in 1988 and that the “fate of the victims and the whereabouts of their bodies are, to this day, systematically concealed by the Iranian authorities, amounting to ongoing crimes against humanity.”

“Raisi presided over a spiraling crackdown on human rights,” while serving as Iran’s judiciary chief, which saw “hundreds of peaceful dissidents, human rights defenders and members of persecuted minority groups arbitrarily detained,” the statement said.

“Under his watch, the judiciary has also granted blanket impunity to government officials and security forces responsible for unlawfully killing hundreds of men, women and children.”

The judiciary also subjected “thousands of protesters to mass arrests and at least hundreds to enforced disappearance, and torture and other ill-treatment during and in the aftermath of the nationwide protests of November 2019.”

“We continue to call for Ebrahim Raisi to be investigated for his involvement in past and ongoing crimes under international law, including by states that exercise universal jurisdiction,” Amnesty concluded.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)