Document Type : Original Article

Author

Associate Professor in International Relations, Department of Political Sciences, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Bu-Ali University, Hamedan, Iran

10.22080/jpir.2022.24151.1304

Abstract

Iran’s nuclear program has been a central security concern for Israel over the past two decades. In reaction to this threat, Israel has conducted a multifaceted drive to block it, one of which is planning and enforcement a complex psychological warfare to block it from summer 2002(disclosing the program) to July 2015(signing JCPOA). This article seeks to understand the complex psychological warfare in the past three decades by using the process research method and offers recommendations for confronting it. The basic question is, what are the special features of Israel's psychological war against Iran's nuclear program? The main hypothesis is that Israel's psychological war is designed to impress the authorities of Tehran and Washington by making the scenario of a military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities look serious. The first motif was provoking anxiety about threat of Iranian nuclear project; the second emphasized the other threats that the Iranian regime poses, chief among them its aggressive policy, which includes involvement in terrorism and extensive activity to develop long range missiles; the third was the threat of Israel military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities during 2010-2012; and the fourth from 2013 onwards, dealt with the negotiations between the world powers and Iran which had founded the ground for withdrawing Trump from JCPOA in 2018. Part two concentered on assessment of Israel challenges in psychological warfare against Iran’s Nuclear Program, especially under the experience of nuclear negotiations and after the signing JCPOA. In the end, some proper countermeasures would be offered.

Keywords

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