As a series of complex post-Iran war dilemmas are set into place, the IDF has shifted to focus almost all of its Iran-related attention to the nuclear issue, with the ballistic missiles and regime change questions mostly falling by the wayside.
In briefings, the IDF is spending significant time emphasizing the continued danger of the 60% enriched uranium which the Islamic regime might access under the rubble of its Isfahan and other facilities.
Discussing that issue, the IDF is making it clear that it would be ready to return to a full-fledged war to prevent Iran from using the uranium to move toward a nuclear weapon.
Yet in the same briefings, the ballistic missile threat which Iran wields, has used with lethal effect against the Jewish state four times since 2024, and for which ostensibly Israel went to war with Iran on February 28, is getting much less attention.
It is unclear if the downplaying of the threat relates to the messaging of the US, the greater relative danger posed by a nuclear weapon, the success of the current war in setting the threat back multiple years, or the post war fog surrounding how many missiles remain and how quickly Iran might rebuild the threat.
IDF never promised regime change
Of course, the IDF is still carefully following the ballistic missile threat.
However, the impression given in briefings is that the nuclear issue – which many had said was set back by years after the June 2025 operation – is far and above the focus for analyzing post-war moves.
Likewise, regime change has mostly disappeared from IDF briefings.
All IDF officers are careful to state that the military never promised regime change, and at most the opportunity to improve conditions for such a change.
On Friday, the IDF went so far as to admit that some of the attacks on low level Basij militias and checkpoints in Iran, may have been a waste of resources, since they did not change the situation on the ground.
Defending the attacks on the Basij and checkpoints in Iran, the IDF did not so much emphasize positive impact from these attacks as it noted that even during such attacks, it continued to strike other aspects of military threats which Iran presented to Israel.
Putting together the mosaic of targets in Iran the IDF said was like playing a complex symphony.
In terms of achievements in Iran, the IDF said that part of the success came from January 16, 2024 and March 7, 2024 decisions within the IDF to establish the now humongous Iran-focused air force unit.
According to the IDF, this sub-unit within the air force has effectively become the military “Iran Command.”
Discussing other moves which the air force may make in the future, the air force said that it may establish a set full-time division devoted to the IDF Central Command for fighting Palestinian terror in the West Bank.
Since summer 2023, the IDF started to use the air force continuously more aggressively against West Bank Palestinian terror – something it had not done for years since the end of the Second Intifada in 2005.
On Thursday, the IDF Central Command announced that it was establishing a larger and more systematic targeting center for aerial and other heavy firepower, similar to what exists for the IDF Northern and Southern Commands.
