Road to Middle East peace runs through Teheran and Tel Aviv
With or without nuclear weapons, Teheran can be a force for equilibrium and stability — not just in the Middle East, but across the Eurasian heartland.
In hindsight, everything was going well with Iran's nuclear programme until US President Donald Trump decided to dump the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on May 8, 2018.
Technically speaking, the US withdrawal from JPOA removed Iran from its obligations and expedited its "breakout time" — the time it would take for Iran to produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb.
By the morning of June 22, when all hell broke loose over the Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan uranium processing sites, Iran had the capacity to enrich uranium to 60 per cent purity, short of the 90 per cent that Israel feared.
Incidentally, Israel has nuclear bombs at Dimona that could blow the entire region into pieces, and yet Tel Aviv is fearful of Teheran that has no nuclear bombs?
After the US strikes, Trump triumphantly declared that the facilities "were totally and completely obliterated".
His assessment was later downplayed by Central Intelligence Agency director John Ratcliffe.
The killing of Iran's top nuclear scientists and generals may set back the process for a few years. However, it is unlikely to undermine its technical capacity to weaponise the knowledge, if it wishes to.
The current Iran-Israel conflict is no longer based on ideological schisms or differences.
Instead, the once-dominant Arab-Israeli conflict has given way to a more complex, dangerous and region-defining rivalry between Iran and Israel — one that reflects shifting alliances, strategic ambition and a new geopolitical architecture in the Middle East.
This new fault line is less about identity or religion, and more about regional hegemony, deterrence, and resistance to unilateralism, territorial domination and land grabbing.
Lastly, Israel's genocide policy in Gaza is a stark warning to other countries that they, too, could face the same fate if they dare challenge the nuclear state of Israel openly.
Israel is a formidable military power and can respond to Iranian attacks — but without the US, it faces high strategic and operational risk.
While US involvement provides the margin between military resilience and regional catastrophe, the response from Iran touched the very heart of Middle Eastern geopolitics in that states, however weak they are perceived to be, will stand up to regional bullies, a lesson that Tel Aviv should heed.
The recent "12-day war" shows clearly that the Iran-Israel rivalry cannot be managed through bombs and diplomacy alone.
What the Middle East needs to prevent further clashes involving the big powers is a new collective security dialogue and an acknowledgement that Iran, with a population of 90 million and sophisticated homegrown hypersonic missile technology, is a force to reckon with.
Besides, it controls the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic choke point, through which some 20 million barrels of oil go through daily.
Israel's true survival lies not in bombs, walls or foreign guarantees but in reconciliation, restraint and regional trust.
Its security comes not from controlling land or stockpiling weapons — it comes from genuine coexistence with neighbours based on mutual respect, shared dignity and resilience.
The road to Middle East peace no longer runs through Cairo, Riyadh or Amman — it now runs through Teheran and Tel Aviv.
Thus, the Arab-Israeli conflict is no longer the story. The Iran-Israel confrontation is.
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