Israel and Iran war has moved into the second week with large exchange of aerial and ballistic missiles and with very little respite.

In a much-anticipated preemptive air strike with 200 jet aircraft, Israel struck more than 100 targets in Iran last week targeting nuclear assets and the command structure of Iran. The Mossad had infiltrated and neutralised anti-aircraft assets of Iran by firing huge numbers of drones from within Iran.

It may be recalled that Iran has a minority population of 10,000 Jews down from 1,00,000 before the Iranian revolution.

Four Generals of top military command and ten scientists working on the nuclear installations were eliminated in the first offensive. Ten cities have been targeted and nuclear assets have been degraded up to some extent.

In the second week, the United States of America (USA) has joined Israel in targeting and degrading the underground nuclear assets of Iran where the Israelis did not have the penetrating power. Operation Midnight Hammer was a lightning campaign in which B-2 Stealth Bombers attacked Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan and caused appreciable destruction to the underground assets.

The stated strategic aim of Israel to carry out the preemptive strike was to neutralise the nuclear and ballistic assets and affect a regime change in Iran after a popular uprising among the people against the Mullahs. They also targeted and successfully eliminated the higher civil and military leadership with the aim of creating a psychological paralysis in the nerve centre of the besieged nation.

The US, Israel and Iran may be in for a long haul, taking a cue from the Russian-Ukrainian war and the war in Gaza. In effect, Israel has helped the Iranian regime in rallying masses to show their commitment to their nation and for the timebeing all opposition to the Islamic regime has been put on the back burner.

President Donald Trump has yet again proved to be a transactional leader. He lulled the Iranians into having fifth round of talks on Iranian nuclear programme and was fully in........

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