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The Citizen
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Citizen
Trump's hasty war on Iran risks dragging US into another endless conflict
Trump has fallen for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just as hard as he fell for Russia's President Vladimir Putin and the die is cast. This satellite picture taken on June 22, 2025, shows a close-up view of craters after US strikes on Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), northeast of the city of Qom. Picture: Satellite image 2025 Maxar Technologies / AFP He didn't take two weeks to make up his mind whether or not to bomb Iran, only two days. US President Donald Trump is not a patient man. But he has just started another American 'forever war' in the Middle East, so he will have plenty of time to work on his self-control. Let's start with the immediate issue. Assume for a moment that Iran was really working to build nuclear weapons, allegedly to destroy Israel. Did the US bombing of the Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan nuclear enrichment sites really blast down through 90m of rock and permanently eliminate any skulduggery the Iranians were up to there? Wrong question. If there really was a large stock of highly enriched uranium stored under all that rock, the Iranians have had a week to divide it up into dozens or hundreds of packets and hide it at safe sites all over the country. What would you do if you knew somebody was coming to bomb you in a few days? Then there's this business about how highly enriched Iran's uranium is. About 90% is weapons-grade and Iran had already enriched a lot of uranium to 60%, so the American B-2s have to start bombing right now. ALSO READ: Oil prices plunge as Trump announces shaky ceasefire between Iran and Israel No time to lose. No time even to think. Nonsense. The gun-type atomic bomb just fires one chunk of enriched uranium at another chunk and so long as the two chunks add up to a critical mass the bomb explodes. That critical mass can be quite small if the uranium is highly enriched, but it will still work at 60% although the package will be heavier and bulkier. There was no deadline. That type of nuclear weapon is so simple and fool-proof that there is no real need to 'test' it, but how was Iran going to deliver it? A ballistic missile, presumably, because drones and cruise missiles can't handle the weight or the range, but few of Iran's ballistic missiles get through Israel's missile defences. However, for the sake of argument, imagine that one of Iran's putative nine or 10 nuclear missiles does make it through and destroys an Israeli town or city. We are piling improbable on top of implausible here, but what would Israel do then? Israel would probably respond by levelling Iran, which it is more than capable of doing. It has the full triad of nuclear weapons, at least 100 of them but up to 400, of all sizes up to thermonuclear. Israel can sterilise the whole of Iran if it chooses. None of these stories we are told makes much sense, so let's try a different approach. What did the 18 US intelligence agencies tell the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, about Iran's nuclear weapons in March? ALSO READ: Did the US strikes succeed, and how will Iran respond? They told her Iran was not building nuclear weapons. Indeed, they explained Tehran only created a nuclear weapons programme after Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded Iran with US help in the 1980s. After Saddam was overthrown in 2003, it became clear that there had never been any Iraqi nuclear weapons, it was all a bluff. Thereupon Iran closed its own nuclear weapons programme down and has never resumed it since. It's all just history now. Trump has fallen for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just as hard as he fell for Russia's President Vladimir Putin and the die is cast. It is likely to be a long, ugly war, conducted mostly by aircraft and missiles at first, but there will be boots on the ground if it goes on long enough. An anti-clerical revolution in Iran could take the country down another road, but if the regime survives, the war could last for many years. Persia was the rival superpower in Roman times and 1 000 years later it was the other superpower in Ottoman times. It's not a superpower any more, but then neither is the US. NOW READ: Iran vs Israel: Principled peace is the only way forward
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Israel carried out targeted killings for 14 Iranian nuclear scientists, engineers
Israel's tally of the war damage it wrought on Iran includes the targeted killings of at least 14 scientists, an unprecedented attack on the brains behind Iran's nuclear program that outside experts say can only set it back, not stop it. This handout satellite picture provided by Maxar Technologies shows new airstrike craters at perimeter installation on Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) after US strikes.(AFP/Maxar Technologies ) In an interview with The Associated Press, Israel's ambassador to France said the killings will make it 'almost" impossible for Iran to build weapons from whatever nuclear infrastructure and material may have survived nearly two weeks of Israeli airstrikes and massive bunker-busting bombs dropped by U.S. stealth bombers. 'The fact that the whole group disappeared is basically throwing back the program by a number of years, by quite a number of years," Ambassador Joshua Zarka said. Also Read: Iran Israel's fragile ceasefire in place - What's next? Explained But nuclear analysts say Iran has other scientists who can take their place. European governments say that military force alone cannot eradicate Iran's nuclear know-how, which is why they want a negotiated solution to put concerns about the Iranian program to rest. 'Strikes cannot destroy the knowledge Iran has acquired over several decades, nor any regime ambition to deploy that knowledge to build a nuclear weapon," U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy told lawmakers in the House of Commons. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program was peaceful, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon. Here's a closer look at the killings: Chemists, physicists, engineers among those killed Zarka told AP that Israeli strikes killed at least 14 physicists and nuclear engineers, top Iranian scientific leaders who 'basically had everything in their mind.' They were killed 'not because of the fact that they knew physics, but because of the fight that they were personally involved in, the creation and the fabrication and the production of (a) nuclear weapon," he said. Nine of them were killed in Israel's opening wave of attacks on June 13, the Israeli military said. It said they 'possessed decades of accumulated experience in the development of nuclear weapons' and included specialists in chemistry, materials and explosives as well as physicists. Zarka spoke Monday to the AP. On Tuesday, Iran state TV reported the death of another Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, in an Israeli strike, after he'd survived an earlier attack that killed his 17-year-old son on June 13. Targeted killings meant to discourage would-be successors Experts say that decades of Iranian work on nuclear energy — and, Western powers allege, nuclear weapons — has given the country reserves of know-how and scientists who could continue any work toward building warheads to fit on Iran's ballistic missiles. 'Blueprints will be around and, you know, the next generation of Ph.D. students will be able to figure it out," said Mark Fitzpatrick, who specialized in nuclear non-proliferation as a former U.S. diplomat. Bombing nuclear facilities "or killing the people will set it back some period of time. Doing both will set it back further, but it will be reconstituted.' 'They have substitutes in maybe the next league down, and they're not as highly qualified, but they will get the job done eventually,' said Fitzpatrick, now an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London think tank. How quickly nuclear work could resume will in part depend on whether Israeli and U.S. strikes destroyed Iran's stock of enriched uranium and equipment needed to make it sufficiently potent for possible weapons use. 'The key element is the material. So once you have the material, then the rest is reasonably well-known,' said Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based analyst who specializes in Russia's nuclear arsenal. He said killing scientists may have been intended 'to scare people so they don't go work on these programs.' 'Then the questions are, 'Where do you stop?' I mean you start killing, like, students who study physics?" he asked. 'This is a very slippery slope.' The Israeli ambassador said: 'I do think that people that will be asked to be part of a future nuclear weapon program in Iran will think twice about it.' Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, which it has never acknowledged. Previous attacks on scientists Israel has long been suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists but previously didn't claim responsibility as it did this time. In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for killing its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, with a remote-controlled machine gun. 'It delayed the program but they still have a program. So it doesn't work,' said Paris-based analyst Lova Rinel, with the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank. 'It's more symbolic than strategic.' Without saying that Israel killed Fakhrizadeh, the Israeli ambassador said 'Iran would have had a bomb a long time ago' were it not for repeated setbacks to its nuclear program — some of which Iran attributed to Israeli sabotage. 'They have not reached the bomb yet,' Zarka said. 'Every one of these accidents has postponed a little bit the program.' A legally grey area International humanitarian law bans the intentional killing of civilians and non-combatants. But legal scholars say those restrictions might not apply to nuclear scientists if they were part of the Iranian armed forces or directly participating in hostilities. 'My own take: These scientists were working for a rogue regime that has consistently called for the elimination of Israel, helping it to develop weapons that will allow that threat to take place. As such, they are legitimate targets,' said Steven R. David, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. He said Nazi German and Japanese leaders who fought Allied nations during World War II 'would not have hesitated to kill the scientists working on the Manhattan Project' that fathered the world's first atomic weapons. Laurie Blank, a specialist in humanitarian law at Emory Law School, said it's too early to say whether Israel's decapitation campaign was legal. 'As external observers, we don't have all the relevant facts about the nature of the scientists' role and activities or the intelligence that Israel has,' she said by email to AP. 'As a result, it is not possible to make any definitive conclusions.' Zarka, the ambassador, distinguished between civilian nuclear research and the scientists targeted by Israel. 'It's one thing to learn physics and to know exactly how a nucleus of an atom works and what is uranium,' he said. But turning uranium into warheads that fit onto missiles is 'not that simple,' he said. 'These people had the know-how of doing it, and were developing the know-how of doing it further. And this is why they were eliminated.'
Toronto Sun
4 days ago
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
Canadians support preventing Iran from becoming nuclear power, poll finds
This handout satellite picture taken and provided by Maxar Technologies taken on June 22, 2025 shows an overview of Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) after US air strikes were conducted on the facility, northeast of the city of Qom. AFP OTTAWA — Most Canadians don't want a nuclear-armed Iran, new polling suggests. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account In the new Harris Canada poll released this week, 85% of those polled say Iran should be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons. Fifteen per cent said Iran should not be prevented from continuing with their nuclear weapons program. Israel's latest campaign to halt Iran's aspirations of becoming a nuclear state was aided this weekend by the United States, who dropped bombs on three nuclear sites in northwestern Iran. Fourteen GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs were dropped by United States Air Force B-2 bombers — severely hindering Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons. Despite reports that Iran managed to transport material and equipment from one of its facilities before the bombs fell, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin said on Monday that didn't happen. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'We actually believe they stored more of it in Fordo (enrichment facility) because they believe Fordo was impenetrable,' Mullin told CNBC. 'They thought it was a safe place to be.' Read More While support for dismantling Iranian nukes was brisk across all demographics, support was highest among older age groups — with 86% of those aged 35 to 54 and 93% of those over 55 in favour. Gen Z (age 18 to 28) and Millennials (age 29 to 44) showed the strongest opposition to preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, at 28% and 23% respectively. Harris Poll Canada president Sara Cappe said the poll sends a clear and nearly unified message. 'The vast majority of Canadians across regions, gender and income demographics believe Iran should be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons,' she said. 'While support is slightly lower among younger Canadians, a strong majority across all age groups still share the same concern, highlighting this issue as a point of national consensus.' The poll was conducted between June 20 and 23 among 1,538 Canadians, with a margin-of-error of ± 3%. bpassifiume@ X: @bryanpassifiume NHL Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls World World
Sinar Daily
5 days ago
- Politics
- Sinar Daily
Top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader says uranium stockpile intact despite US strikes
Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump said American forces bombed Iran's Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. 23 Jun 2025 08:59am This handout satellite image courtesy of Maxar Technologies shows cargo trucks postioned near an underground entrance to Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), in Fordo, Iran on June 19, 2025. (Photo by Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies / AFP) ISTANBUL - A senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei confirmed Sunday that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium is still intact despite US attacks on three nuclear sites, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported. "Even if nuclear sites are destroyed, game isn't over, enriched materials, indigenous knowledge, political will remain,' Ali Shamkhani wrote on X. This handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows him, flanked by the Iranian flag and a portrait of his predecessor the late supreme leader and Iranian revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, giving a televised address in Tehran on June 18, 2025. (Photo by / AFP) "With legitimate defence right, political and operational initiative is now with the side that plays smart, avoids blind strikes. Surprises will continue!' he added. The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Iran's official radio and television broadcaster, reported Sunday that targeted sites had been evacuated before the attack and sensitive nuclear materials were moved to safe locations, without providing details. Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump said American forces bombed Iran's Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. The US targeted the sites with six bunker-buster bombs dropped on the Fordo facility with B-2 stealth bombers, along with dozens of submarine-launched cruise missile strikes on the Natanz and Isfahan facilities. The attacks came as the latest escalation in a US-backed Israeli military assault on Iran since June 13, prompting Tehran to launch retaliatory attacks on Israel. Both sides have reported fatalities and injuries in the exchange of airstrikes. - BERNAMA-ANADOLU More Like This
Gulf Today
6 days ago
- Politics
- Gulf Today
VIDEO: US strikes 3 Iranian sites, joining Israeli air campaign
The US military struck three sites in Iran early on Sunday, inserting itself into Israel 's effort to decapitating the country's nuclear programme in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran's threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict. Iran's nuclear agency on Sunday confirmed attacks took place on its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz atomic sites, but is insisting its work will not be stopped. The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran issued the statement after President Donald Trump announced the American attack on the facilities. "The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran assures the great Iranian nation that despite the evil conspiracies of its enemies, with the efforts of thousands of its revolutionary and motivated scientists and experts, it will not allow the development of this national industry, which is the result of the blood of nuclear martyrs, to be stopped,' it said in its statement. The decision to directly involve the US comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country's air defences and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But US and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-lb. bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily-fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear programme buried deep underground. President Donald Trump was the first to disclose the strikes. There was no immediate acknowledgment from the Iranian government. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that attacks targeted the country's Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. The agency did not elaborate. The US is stepping up evacuation flights for American citizens from Israel to Europe and continuing to draw down its staff at diplomatic missions in Iraq as fears of Iranian retaliation again US interests in the Middle East grow. Even before those airstrikes were announced by President Donald Trump on Saturday evening in Washington, the US embassy in Jerusalem announced the start of evacuation flights for American civilians from Israel. In addition to the flights, a cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 American citizens, including several hundred Jewish youngsters who had been visiting Israel on an organized tour, arrived in Cyprus, according to the document. Donald Trump said he worked "as a team' with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the collaboration was "perhaps' like "no team has worked before.' This handout satellite image shows an overview of Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), in Fordo, Iran. AFP But Trump also noted that no military in the world except for that of the US could have pulled off the attack. President Donald Trump called Iran "the bully of the Middle East' and warned of additional attacks if it didn't make peace. "If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier,' Trump said at the White House after the bombings of Iran's nuclear facilities were announced earlier. Trump portrayed the strike as a response to a long-festering problem, even if the objective was to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The Washington-based Arms Control Association, which focuses on nuclear nonproliferation, said the attack was an "irresponsible departure from Trump's pursuit of diplomacy and increases the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran.' "The US military strikes on Iranian nuclear targets, including the deeply fortified, underground Fordo uranium enrichment complex, may temporarily set back Iran's nuclear program, but in the long term, military action is likely to push Iran to determine nuclear weapons are necessary for deterrence and that Washington is not interested in diplomacy,' it warned. A police tape blocks off an area near the White House, following US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, in Washington, DC, U.S., on Saturday. Reuters Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported early Sunday that attacks also targeted the country's Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. IRNA quoted Akbar Salehi, Isfahan's deputy governor in charge of security affairs, saying there had been attacks around the sites. He did not elaborate. Another official confirmed an attack targeting Iran's underground Fordo nuclear site. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency early Sunday acknowledged an attack on the country's Fordo nuclear site. Quoting a statement from Iran's Qom province, IRNA said: "A few hours ago, when Qom air defenses were activated and hostile targets were identified, part of the Fordo nuclear site was attacked by enemies.' The IRNA report did not elaborate. Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, quoted a provincial official in Qom that air defense did recently fire in an attack believed to target the area around the Fordo facility, but offered no other information. The semiofficial Fars news agency, also close to the Guard, quoted another official saying air defenses opened fire near Isfahan and explosions had been heard. Fars also quoted the same official in Qom province, saying air defenses fired around Fordo. President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi arrives at Baghdad International Airport. File/Reuters President Abdel Fattah El Sissi of Egypt has expressed his government's "complete rejection' of Israel's campaign against Iran, calling for a negotiated solution to the conflict. El Sissi's comments came in a phone call Saturday with Iranian President Masoud Pezezhkin, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. The statement said El Sissi voiced Egypt's "complete rejection of the ongoing Israeli escalation against Iran,' as a threat to the Middle East's security and stability. The Egyptian leader called for an immediate ceasefire to resume negotiations with the aim of reaching a "sustainable, peaceful solution to this crisis.'
