US Attacks Iran

After months of hesitation, President Donald Trump finally succeeded in making ‘America Great Again’ by bombing three nuclear installations of Iran while silencing his western critics who were mocking his self-styled peace initiatives. He failed miserably in the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal, and now his Iranian nuclear diplomacy has escalated the ongoing Israel-Iran war. America’s covert presence in the Israel-Iran war was not disputed by anybody, but this bombing made America’s direct entry into the war. The immediate Iranian reaction was somewhat surrealistic: ‘They cannot bomb knowledge’. In other words, Tehran conveyed the message that they would continue its nuclear programme. In truth, strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, including the deeply fortified underground Fordow uranium enrichment complex, may temporarily put Iran’s nuclear establishments in disarray, but in the long term, American-Israeli action is likely to push Iran to determine nuclear weapons are necessary for deterrence. Iran may now withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and proceed to weaponisation. American intelligence agencies repeatedly said Iran was not making a bomb, but Trump and his Israeli friends didn’t believe. Their goal was to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, and they ultimately did it. The Iran fiasco may encourage more states to consider the pursuit of nuclear weapons to thwart attacks by other nuclear-armed states.

For one thing, all nuclear energy programmes start with peaceful purposes, but in the course of time bomb finds its way into the political culture. India and Pakistan started with insignificant atomic energy business but in the end both of them made bombs. ‘No’ to nuclear energy is the only solution to stop the nuclear arms race. Anti-nuke movement, like anti-war movement across the world, is so weak that the nuclear lobby under the cloak of ‘clean energy’ is doing brisk business. Russia, China, France and America are the major players in the game. India got its first nuclear reactor—CANDU—from Canada. At the time of the American strikes, 200 Russian atomic scientists were working in Iran’s nuclear power projects.

Trump had to face flak from his own countrymen as more than 60 percent of Americans voted against America’s involvement in Israel’s Iran war. Democrats are now making noise about Trump’s refusal to take Congress into confidence before going to war. But Democrats’ murmur doesn’t matter. Interestingly, the Pentagon informed Iran through a private message that they were going to attack nuclear infrastructures, not civilians and military targets, allowing Iranian authorities sufficient time to shift enriched uranium elsewhere. A similar story revolves around Modi’s ‘Operation Sindoor’. India too, allegedly informed Pakistan beforehand that they were going to attack terror platforms, not civilians and military assets.

Quite expectedly American Jewish Community, the global advocacy organisation for the Jewish people, thanked Trump for taking historic and decisive military action against the threat of a nuclear Iran and praised the United States military service members who carried out these targeted strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites. No doubt this military operation was unprecedented and Trump lost no time in claiming victory. But it is far too soon to say how much damage the American strikes have caused to Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Iranian foreign ministry said there were minor damages to their nuclear complexes. That Iran would retaliate was a foregone conclusion. And within 12 hours, Iran launched massive ballistic missile attacks on Israel, recreating a Gaza scenario in Tel Aviv and Haifa port city. Perhaps the hawks in Israel are now realising that “what goes around comes around”.

That the Israel-Iran war will prolong is a hard reality now. And it is going to affect the global economy, particularly the oil market, in a big way.

Barring Russia, no major power, not even China, condemned American attacks on Iran. America wants to get back what it has lost—a pro-American regime as it was under the Shah. The idea of regime change in Tehran has been in the air for quite some time, and it is likely to gain currency as the first objective of ‘obliterating’ nuclear sites, though partially, has been achieved.

23-06-2025

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 3, Jul 13 - 19, 2025