Israel may not be in a shooting war with Iran yet, but its security officials have reportedly moved their meetings to a secret underground bunker in Jerusalem. PM Benjamin Netanyahu apparently ordered the move to prevent leaks.
The venue, known as the National Management Center, was carved out under a government complex in Jerusalem, Reuters and Israeli media said. The facility which is said to have both command sectors and living quarters, was reportedly used back in 2011 to rehearse a scenario of national crisis.
“Several cabinet meetings told me Netanyahu's moved the security cabinet meetings to the bunker because of the fear of leaks from sensitive discussions on Syria and Iran,” Israel’s Channel 10’s Barak Ravid wrote on Twitter.
According to reports, the decision was taken two weeks ago after Netanyahu made a demonstration showing, what he called, a secret Iranian nuclear weapons-related archive.
The next gathering in the bunker is scheduled for Wednesday. Israeli officials refrained from commenting on the media reports.
The news alarmed some people on Twitter, with one user saying that the ‘bunker news’ combined with previous comments on Iran from the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Israeli bragging about being the first nation to use US-made F-35 fighter jets in combat missions, creates uneasy mood.
Others tried to turn the reports into a joke:
The news comes amid Israel's rapidly declining relations with its nemesis Iran. Tensions between the opponents escalated in February when Israel launched an air raid in Syria after intercepting what it claimed was an Iranian drone crossing into Israeli airspace.
They flared up with a renewed vigor in April, after Israeli F-15 fighters reportedly targeted Iranian military assets stationed at Syria’s T-4 airbase in Homs province, killing at least seven Iranian military personnel at the base and triggering outrage from Tehran.
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