Now that another Trumpean peace has been declared in the Middle East, the world can breathe a sigh of relief. We have witnessed two wars in quick succession. The short-duration India-Pakistan war and the Israel-Iran war, which lasted twelve long days and has caused tremendous damage to both life and infrastructure. While the exact extent of the damage is still being assessed, controversy prevails on the extent of damage caused to Iran’s nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan by the US bombing, where, for the first time, 13,600 kg GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker buster bombs, which penetrate 200 feet of reinforced concrete, were used in modern warfare.

Trump, in his usual blustering style, has claimed that all three facilities, especially Fordow, which is capable of housing 3,000 centrifuges, were completely `obliterated’. The Pentagon’s main intelligence arm, the Defence Intelligence Agency, claimed the attacks had only `degraded’ these sites and that they would be in a position to restart their programme in the next one to two months. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, however, admitted on Wednesday that their nuclear installations had been badly damaged.

Prior to this statement, the Iranian government claimed that most of the highly enriched uranium stored at the Fordow nuclear facility had been moved to undisclosed locations ahead of the US strikes. The number of personnel at these sites had also been reduced to a minimum.

Another major development in Iran has been Iran Parliament’s discussion on a bill whereby they will suspend all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which they feel has played a bipartisan role in these recent developments and made little attempt to ensure the safety of Iran’s nuclear facilities. The IAEA’s findings three weeks ago, warning that Iran was hiding its nuclear ambition and was only a few notches away from making a nuclear bomb, served as the trigger for........

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