“Fordow is gone” was the simple message sent by US president Donald Trump on social media early on Sunday, putting an end to days of speculation over whether he would be willing to provide the coup de grace to Iran’s nuclear project.
Seven B-2 bombers dropped a dozen “bunker buster” bombs on the Fordow nuclear facility while navy submarines fired 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles at two other nuclear sites, Natanz and Isfahan.
The US strikes came nine days after Israel’s surprise attack on Iran, launching a war that has reshaped the Middle East, lifting Israel’s military supremacy to new heights while leaving Iran and its so-called Axis of Resistance in tatters – and, at the same time, reinforcing Washington’s image as the pre-eminent global superpower.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the US attack was carried out “in full co-ordination” with Israel and was a continuation of the Israeli military and Mossad operations in Iran against the Iranian nuclear programme, which he said threatened Israel’s existence and endangered world peace.
“At the beginning of the operation, I promised you that Iran’s nuclear facilities would be destroyed one way or another. That promise has been kept,” he said.
“President Trump is leading the free world with strength. He is a great friend of Israel, a friend like no other.”
Despite the apparent success of the American bombing, it remains unclear how much of its supply of enriched uranium Iran managed to transfer away from the nuclear sites that were hit.
Israel’s national security council chief Tzachi Hanegbi said the US attack had pushed Iran’s nuclear programme back by several years.
A few hours later, Iran launched 30 ballistic missiles towards Israel, scoring direct hits in Tel Aviv and another location in central Israel, injuring 30 people.
However, the attack was no bigger than similar strikes last week. The discipline of residents, who headed to safe rooms and bomb shelters, ensured there were no fatalities despite large damage to buildings.
Israel temporarily closed its airspace after the US attack and reinstituted strict guidelines for public gatherings, permitting only essential activity.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran reserved all options to defend its sovereignty, interests and people”, warning that the US attack would have “everlasting consequences.”
However, Iran’s military options appear limited and would be likely prompt a US counter attack.
Houthis in Yemen also threatened to respond, after previously warning that a US strike would lead to a resumption of attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.
For much of his political career Netanyahu has made thwarting Iran’s nuclear programme his priority, raising the issue in speech after speech in apocalyptic terms, arguing that Iran would not be deterred and that an Iranian nuclear bomb would present an existential threat to Israel.
With Israeli intelligence concluding Tehran was moving dangerously close to the bomb, something had to give between the two rival regional powers.
Israel believed that following the defeat of Hizbullah and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria last year, Tehran took a strategic decision to acquire a nuclear bomb and already had enough enriched fissile material for at least nine bombs. The decades-long waiting game was over.
The deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, resulted in the biggest number of Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust. Most Israelis believed this traumatic event would become Netanyahu’s legacy: a day of infamy he would never be able to erase.
But he now sees an opportunity to reshape that legacy once again and go down in history as the leader who with patience and determination saved Israel from the threat of nuclear annihilation.
It’s a narrative that the majority of the Israeli public appear to be buying into – for now, at least.
