GH—Decades of sanctions, covert sabotage and threats have pushed Iran to harden parts of its nuclear programme, including building the Fordow enrichment facility deep under a mountain near Qom. Analysts note Fordow’s depth and geology make it extremely difficult to destroy with conventional weapons alone; even the US GBU-57 “bunker buster” might not guarantee full destruction.
The horror of what is already happening makes this nuclear brinkmanship even more obscene. On February 28, the US and Israel launched their largest joint assault on Iran in decades, a wave of air and missile strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his own compound and decapitated parts of the country’s military and political leadership. In the same operation, dozens of other senior officials and many civilians were reported killed under the bombs.
That wasn’t “deterrence”; it was the murder of a head of state in a surprise attack that shredded any remaining pretence that Washington and Tel Aviv respect Iranian sovereignty or basic international norms.
