The joint American-Israeli assault on Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025 was one of the most open-ended military actions in the Middle East in years. It wasn’t really an attack—it was a calculated risk. The plan was to slow Iran’s nuclear development, act decisively, and yet avoid escalating the region into full-scale war. Washington designated the mission Operation Midnight Hammer, and that of Israel as Operation Rising Lion. Combined, the two represented the most direct threat thus far to Tehran’s nuclear program.
This day had been building up for months. There had been increasing tension over Iran’s nuclear trajectory. The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly declared—for the first time in decades—that Iran was violating its safeguards, mentioning secret facilities and secret uranium stores. When Tehran revealed the new enrichment plant and high-end centrifuge plans, alarm bells sounded even more urgently.
Israeli intelligence estimated Iran had already produced enough enriched uranium for several warheads. The Americans were more cautious, thinking Tehran had not yet initiated the last stages of bomb manufacturing. But the negotiations had broken down, and in Israel, the threat was being made as existential. The military option was immediately the center of attention.
When the mission proceeded, coordination was breathtaking. The United States deployed over 120 planes, among them B-2 Spirit stealth bombers with the enormous GBU-57 bunker-busting bomb, meant to blast through ultra-hard underground targets. The mission began with Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from subs in the Gulf of Oman to open the way for the bombers. Deception gear and decoys covered their path as they entered Iranian airspace. Fordow, Iran’s most fortified hub of its nuclear network, was attacked first. Natanz and Isfahan followed a little more than an hour later. A total of 14 of the massive bombs were dropped in succession.
Israel had paved the way days before, bombing Natanz and leveling infrastructure above and below the surface. The American raids continued the damage, leaving massive craters around Fordow and leveling conversion plants at Isfahan. Public opinion in Jerusalem and Washington was to brand the outcome as catastrophic, but internal intelligence estimates were more cautious. Iran’s programme had been delayed by months, not years, experts estimated—because so much of Tehran’s uranium had been stockpiled in expectation of such an attack.
The cost in human lives was high. Israeli air strikes killed some of Iran’s leading nuclear scientists and senior security figures. Hundreds were killed and thousands wounded in civilian casualties, which mounted at an accelerating rate. Besides the loss of buildings and equipment, the abrupt loss of skills was a psychological shock to Tehran’s nuclear establishment.
Iran was quick to respond. The government called the attacks raw aggression and threatened retaliation. Within days, Tel Aviv was struck by missiles, killing civilians. The Revolutionary Guard threatened U.S. forces with reprisals in the region. Yemen and Gaza militias, and most of the coalition, declared themselves poised to strike. Tehran renewed its threat once more to block the Strait of Hormuz, sending world energy markets into a frenzy.
Globally, the reactions were on diametrically opposite lines. Israeli leaders welcomed what was seen in that country as a daring strike at a threat to existence, and Washington defended the attacks as essential to respond to a rapidly developing threat. The United States president defined the operation as a stupendous success but declined to state that the goal had been war instead of deterrence.
Other capitals received less welcoming news. Russia condemned the raids as irresponsible, and the United Nations called for restraint and diplomacy. Arab regimes were thoroughly shaken, fearful of being drawn into spreading chaos. European leaders embraced Iran’s nuclear fears but cautioned that escalation threatened to destroy any prospect for negotiation.
The larger implications of the campaign are only just starting to unfurl. Strategically, the long-awaited but unresolved issue. Iran still has both the capability and will to return. Worst of all, the strike might encourage others to conceal or speed up their own nuclear activity, thinking transparency brings them nothing but devastation. For Washington and Jerusalem, the strikes won a tactical triumph at the potential cost of a strategic tumble into mayhem.
The Middle East is at a very precarious juncture today. The Iranian threat of retaliation—cyberattacks, proxy wars, terrorism—is still credible. Energy markets are left in limbo, and nonproliferation efforts worldwide have been undermined. Diplomacy and deterrence will be challenged over the next few months. It determines whether history will view the strikes as a necessary step that prevented calamity—rather than the match that lit an infinitely larger flame.