"Completely and Fully Obliterated"

 

"We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan."

"All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on t heir way home."

"This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!"     

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

President Trump with his Cabinet in the Situation Room of the White House as the U.S. conducts strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran. June 21, 2025.  White House

 

And so the suspense ends, the commitment made, the attacks to deprive the Islamic Republic of Iran of its coveted aspiration has melted away. Even if Russia and North Korea have responded by vowing to provide Iran with the nuclear treasure it so avidly sought. Early Sunday the deed  was done, The American military directly linked with Israel's war on Iran's nuclear program, smashing its ballistic rocketry agenda, destroying its airports and planes, and bombing its naval vessels, targeting for assassination military, political, nuclear chiefs, most particularly those within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

 

Iran, stressed the American president, now faces a choice that will impact its future and its very being: "peace or tragedy". Yet Iran's nuclear agency while confirming the attacks on the nation's atomic sites responded by reaffirming its work will proceed, that no outside agency can impose on the Islamic Republic any impediment to its choices and decisions, inspired by its theocratic devotion. 

 

Israel's long-thought-out strategy in response to the existential threats uttered time and again by Iran's Supreme Leader linked to its adamant search for nuclear weaponry to match its advancing missiles technology was launched precisely because diplomacy efforts have failed time and again, despite the urging of the UN's Antonio Gutteres' insistence on the effectiveness of diplomacy over military action. Israel's purpose was clear; to systematically eradicate air defences and offensive missile capabilities along with constructive damage to Iran's nuclear enrichment plans.  

 

Yet although the strategy and its brilliant aerial execution achieved all the stated objectives, there was just so much and not more that even Israel's well-trained and -armed military could produce when faced with the conundrum of how to penetrate deep into a mountainside to destroy a nuclear enrichment plant lodged there. "Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities, with the awesome and righteous might of the United States, will change history", lauded Israel's Prime Minister, delivering his message of deep appreciation to the American President. The U.S. "has done what no other country on Earth could do", he concluded.

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on June 22, 2025 using handout satellite images released by Maxar Technologies shows Iran's Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), northeast of the city of Qom on on June 19, 2025 (top), and Iran's Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), northeast of the city of Qom, after US strikes on the site June 22, 2025 (bottom). (Satellite image 2025 Maxar Technologies / AFP)

 

It was soon revealed that six bunker-buster bombs struck the Fordo facility, while 30 Tomahawk missiles were fired by American submarines located 645 kilometres' distance to strike the sites of Natanz and Isfahan. Predictably, Iran pledged retaliation should the U.S. link to the Israeli assault. As far as Trump is concerned he has no interest in having American boots on the ground in Iran in line with his re-election pledge to avoid foreign conflicts. "The last thing you want to do", he said to reporters, while still mulling over how to proceed, two days before the U.S. bombing intervention.

 

On the other hand, after months of fruitless talks on de-escalation of Iran's nuclear enrichment program, the president vowed he would not permit Iran to work toward success in nuclear weaponry. In an effort to head off American involvement in Israel's attacks on Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned any strike targeting the Islamic Republic would "result in irreparable damage for them", while an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman warned that "any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region".

 

Israel's offensive prepared the ground, presenting an opportunity to permanently destroy Iran's nuclear sites. What was needed to destroy Fordo, however, was something Israel did not have in its military armaments. An appeal was made to Mr. Trump for the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, whose weight and kinetic force could penetrate and explode deeply buried targets. And only the B-2 stealth bomber could deliver the bomb. The B-2 is part of the American arsenal, flown by American pilots only.

A B-2 bomber arrives at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/David Smith)

 

Believed able to penetrate about 61 metres below the surface before exploding, the bombs can be dropped one after another, each successive blast drilling deeper and deeper. Iran has been producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, as confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Strikes by Israel at the Natanz nuclear site caused nuclear contamination at the site itself, not the surrounding area, according to the IAEA.  

"We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding."

"He is an easy target, but is safe there -- We are not going to take him out [kill!], at least not for now."

President Trump