Trump Must Take Control & Avoid Military Escalation in Middle East

Israel's massive strike on Iran risks regional war; Trump must reclaim control, restart diplomacy, and stop escalation before it's too late.

- JOHN DOBSON

It was always likely to happen, but everyone was still taken by surprise when Israel yet again attacked Iran. Justifying the military action and calling Iran's project to obtain nuclear weapons a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced early on Friday that "Today the Jewish state refuses to be a victim of a nuclear holocaust perpetrated by the Iranian regime. As prime minister, I've made it clear time and time again, Israel will never allow those who call for our annihilation to develop the means to achieve that goal. Tonight, Israel backs those words with action. We struck at Iran's nuclear enrichment programme, we struck at Iran's nuclear weaponization programme, we targeted Iran's main enrichment facility in Natanz, we targeted Iran's leading nuclear scientists working on the nuclear bomb, and we also struck at the heart of Iran's ballistic missile programme".

It was certainly a large overnight attack, which Israel named "Rising Lion". According to Israeli media, around 200 warplanes used 330 munitions against more than 100 targets inside Iran, which killed 78 people and injured 329, mostly women and children in residential areas, according to Iranian media. Later reports from Tehran confirmed that the commander of its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami had been killed in the attack, along with a number of senior military commanders and six of its senior nuclear scientists.

Iran's main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz was struck several times, with smoke seen billowing from a number of its buildings. Natanz operates thousands of advanced centrifuges, equipment used for enriching uranium gas, which are located dozens of metres underground for protection.