Israel Launches strike against Irans Nuclear Programme

8 to 10 x F22's appear have cut across,6 miles off Donegal during the week, which are now in the middle east. The very least, the support tankers did.

Technically Scottish airspace. All aircraft were controlled by London Military at the time.

I couldn't care less about connections. The US have illegally bombed a sovereign country, it should be categorically condemned, to not do so is an act of extreme cowardice and hypocrisy but typical of Ireland's cowardly approach when it comes to the US, shameful..

Attacking a nuclear site, in particular one that is within a country party to the IAEA and the NPT sets and incredibly dangerous precedent.

When Russia shelled Zaporozhye and indeed when they took control of Chernobyl there was outrage. There is massive inherent risk in attacking sites, be they active reactors, entombed ones or sites used in production of nuclear precursors.

It cannot be left to a nation that denies it's nuclear status and the nation that arms them despite that, to make these calls.

The US was engaged in diplomacy with Iran up until the 13/6 with a further meeting due on the 15/6. A meeting to discuss a proposal that Iran saw potential for a deal in, yet according to Trump, the US was aware of Israel's plan to attack.

That undermines the foundation of trust in US diplomacy. Why would any nation pursue detente or diplomacy with the US when this is how they chose to proceed.

To be clear, my opinion on Iran possessing a nuclear weapon, is that they shouldn't. The possession of 60% + uranium is an explicit demonstration of an ability to refine uranium to the level required to build a uranium bomb.

The issue with a Uranium bomb? Is size. It restricts the bomb to being a "gun-type" bomb and requires large amounts of fissile material for a relatively inefficient weapon.

As an example, Little Boy, the Hiroshima bomb was 4400kg and dimensionally large. It is even 80yrs later impossible to fit a gun type warhead onto a ballistic missile. Both in terms of the weight of what Iranian missiles can lift (1000-1250kg) with the caveat that the heavier the warhead, the shorter the range. And the actual dimensions of a uranium warhead fitting on to a road mobile missile.

Without Plutonium? There is no path to miniaturisation of a nuclear warhead to a level that would allow Iran the ability to launch such warheads on their missiles.

Iran currently doesn't have a Plutonium production path, their spent reactor fuel is removed to Russia. Indeed the Iranian 60% + enriched uranium was previously sent to France to be processed into fuel rods.

Those controls in place under the Obama era deal don't play well to the nuclear armed Theocracy propaganda angle though. The necessity of Bibi to have a "win"? Has far more to do with the attack on Iran than does it's ability to build a viable nuclear warhead.

Iran trurns to Russia - they would want to be careful or Mossad will be running around Moscow next ..

Iran’s foreign minister is heading to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin tomorrow in the wake of US strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

Calling Russia a “friend of Iran,” Abbas Araghchi warned that Iran “reserves all options to defend its security, its interests, its people...All options are on the table.”

Mr Araghchi said he will speak to Iran’s key ally on how to proceed. “We always consult with each other,” he added in a press conference in Istanbul.

His visit to Russia will raise significant concerns over what kind of support Moscow is willing to offer Tehran at this moment, which could include sending defence materials, getting involved directly militarily or throwing diplomatic weight behind Iran.

Yes. This was all about seizing an opportunity to remove a strategic threat rather than an actual existential threat posed by non existent nuclear weapons. With Hezbollah severely degraded and Bashar removed from power, Bibi saw his opportunity to try and weaken Iran to the point that the regime will fall. What better way to justify his position than to spew the scaremongering lies he has been telling since 1995 about Iran being months away from a bomb. As for Donnie he has shattered his image as the dealmaker and isolationist but his supporters as you said in a previous post won't abandon him. He even was ridiculing Obama in the past for his lack of skills in reaching a deal with Iran. He said Obama would resort to attacking Iran, but Donnie because of his superior skills would reach a deal instead.

Indeed but many more of us I suspect see the world through a more just and moral lense than the myopic, cowardly one you seem to be advocating.

Very much a mealy mouthed statement

No hurry with all these statements, everyone is better off waiting to see what happens in the coming day or so.

Looks like they will be discussing options today on how Iran will respond if they do at all.

doubts remain as to whether irans nuclear weapons programme is destroyed

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-858502

There is debate regarding the penetration capabilities of the bomb. The US Air Force has said that the GBU-57 can penetrate up to 60 m (200 ft) of unspecified material before exploding.[34] The BBC reports that analysts at

Janes

say the weapon can penetrate about 60 m (200 ft) of earth or 18 m (59 ft) of concrete.[35] This is consistent with a separate source which suggests penetration of up to 18 m (59 ft) into

reinforced concrete

with a compressive strength of 5,000 psi (34 MPa) and 2.4 m (8 ft) into 10,000 psi (69 MPa) reinforced concrete.[36]

''

But even a strike with a single MOP was not guaranteed to destroy the Fordo site as the tunnels are thought to be 80-90m (262-295ft) below the surface''

That’s the difference between Iran and the US. The US would never fund terrorism or Muslim fundamentalists fighting occupation of their country after invasion. The US never did that exact thing. 🙄

Simply unrealistic to suggest those bombs did anything to a site 300ft into a mountain of rock

That's why they dropped 6 bombs rather than a single one.