Columnists
Israel-Iran-USA: Nuclear Bomb (Sabre) Rattling
From the Outside Looking
For all of June 2025, Israel and Iran have been exchanging missile and bomb attacks on each other. Behind Israel is its benefactor, the United States of America. Those allying with Iran, Russia, and China are present, but muted.
Now, a ceasefire has been sounded, reportedly effected by President Donald Trump, effectively stopping the Israeli-Iranian 12-day War. At that, Israel enthused that it had eliminated Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. And Iran, after firing missiles into some Israeli areas, indicated that it had stopped.
So, what does this all amount to?
The last indication of this war was when the US bombed the Iranian nuclear facilities of Fodow, Isfahan and Natanz, claiming that it had eliminated Tehran’s capability of uranium enrichment to produce nuclear bombs. Then Iran claimed that it had moved its 400 kilogrammes of uranium intended for that.
It all means that the intelligence snooping on all sides was at work, providing advance information about the intended attacks. This has brought the claims that even the US MOP – Massive Ordnance Penetrator – bombs did not do their jobs on the Iranian uranium-enrichment sites of destroying the Iranian capability. And that is why they all agreed to the ceasefire.
In effect, this amounts to sabre-rattling of each other’s capability of inflicting damage on the other. For all this, it is the civilian population that suffers, with numerous deaths from the Israelis and the Iranians. It has caused many Iranian civilians to run to Armenia for safety.
It is a test of each other’s fighting capability. For those who feared that the fighting would draw the world to a nuclear conflagration that would degenerate to World War III, it is an indication that the three countries did not aim to go that far.
The Iranian attack on the US Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar only earned a feeble complaint from Qatar officials of Tehran violating their state sovereignty. And despite the world being concerned about Iran shutting the Strait of Hormuz, with disruptions to critical shipping lanes for oil, especially to China, Iran did not do it. Even while China and Russia were talking about it, they did not escalate the Israeli-Iranian conflict. So, no world war was forthcoming.
The US ultra-involvement with the conflict and a declaration of a “deal” by Trump for a ceasefire indicate again that the whole intention was what he was after – a regime change in Iran. It is harking back to the days of the Iranian Shah Reza Pahlevi, who scuttled to the US for refuge when the present “Revolutionary Guards” took over the leadership of Iran.
And that amounts to business that can be got out of Iran when it falls under the US ambit. This has to be calculated in terms of trillions of dollars, which the US is more interested in than a nuclear war!
Comments
