As Trump strikes Iran, the US - which launched Iran's nuclear programme - now seeks to end it

ITV News

7 hours ago

So the country which launched Iran's nuclear programme is now the country seeking to end it.
Seven decades after President Eisenhower and the Shah cooperated on the Atoms for Peace programme, President Trump is at war with Iran, insisting not doing so risks global security.
Unfortunately, for the region and the world, by doing so he risks exactly the same thing.
Trump gave diplomacy a two week deadline, that deadline lasted less than two days.
With Trump's demands for an 'unconditional surrender' ignored by the Islamic leadership, it fell to the B2 bombers of the United States Air Force to try and destroy Iran's nuclear assets, taking over where Israel failed.
The consequences are likely to stretch far beyond their targets.
Iran says any form of US military intervention will be met with 'irreparable harm'.
'This nation will never surrender to imposition from anyone,' the Ayatollah has already warned.
American bases in the region are likely to be the first to be targeted. The assets in Iraq are likely to be particularly hard hit by in country Shia militia loyal to Iran.
It is likely Iran's other proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen may also enter the fray. Though significantly weakened by a structural decapitation by Israel over the past 18 months, Hezbollah do still have the weapons to strike Israel.
The Houthis have the power to strike Israel and ships in the Red Sea. They have form for both and could step up their actions.
A easy target would be the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane between Iran and Oman. Around a quarter of global oil supplies and a third of liquified natural gas production moves though that stretch. So too thousands of containers ships.
You don't need to be an expert in trade or economics to work out the knock-on effect of Iran effectively closing it.
And let's not forget global terrorism would be another weapon in Iran's arsenal.
All that is before we even consider the other objective, regime change. The regional destabilisation that would trigger would destroy that 'golden age' vision Trump spoke of on his recent Middle East trade tour. Then he eulogised a region defined by commerce not chaos. His own actions may render his words worthless.
Without doubt his allies in the Gulf have sought his ear over these past weeks, desperate to avoid such a scenario. It seems even their bank balances have not been enough to reign in their erstwhile ally or weaken the seemingly unbreakable alliance with Israel.
Iran in its current form may not be the neighbour the Gulf states would chose but it is better than a chaos of a power vacuum.
By taking action President Trump may hope he can bring this conflict to a speedier end. He may yet discover, like so many before, the dreadful dangers of a Middle Eastern war. They take political lives as well as civilian ones.