Israel’s defense minister warned Saturday that “Tehran will burn” if Iran continues firing missiles, as the two countries traded blows a day after Israel launched a blistering surprise attack on Iranian nuclear and military sites, killing several top generals.
Israel’s military said the strikes also killed nine senior scientists and experts involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s U.N. ambassador said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded.
Iran retaliated by launching waves of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel, where explosions lit the night skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook buildings. The Israeli military urged civilians, already rattled by 20 months of war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, to head to shelter for hours. Health officials said three people were killed and dozens wounded.
This makes sense. I recall thinking after Israel’s previous attack and dismantling Hezbollah that if I were the Ayatollah, I’d now be going full speed towards a nuclear weapon test, as that’s the only thing that can secure my regime’s survival and by extension the stability of the country (in whatever state it exists). After the last attack, that pressure is that much higher.
It’s a great tool to blackmail other nuclear powers to be responsible for your own state’s stability against your own fuckups e.g. Pakistan, fall of the USSR and Ukraine, NKorea, putin now. Nobody wants a messy state collapse, they can’t look away and risk losing nukes or letting them fall in the wrong hands.
Which on the whole I think is a good thing since we’ve seen that significant instability often affects most of us.