How difficult is it for Israel to damage Iran’s nuclear facilities?
Iran’s atomic sites are numerous and dispersed around the country. The most important assets have been moved underground in recent years in an effort to put them out of harm’s way.
That hasn’t stopped smaller-scale sabotage operations that are routinely attributed to Israel. Israel is widely thought to have been behind the assassination in Tehran of five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2010.
In 2021, Iran blamed Israel for an explosion at a key enrichment facility.
Israel says it destroyed most of Iran’s air defence and much of its missile-making capacity in the October 2024 exchange between the two countries, potentially making it easier for Israel to mount a successful attack.
Intelligence officials have warned, however, that strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities may only delay, not destroy, the country’s ability to piece together the technologies needed to manufacture an atomic weapon.
A senior military official responsible for protecting Iran’s nuclear programme said in April 2024 that the country would retaliate in kind if Israel targeted its assets. He hinted that even the threat of doing so could push Iran to reconsider its policies around what it describes as a peaceful nuclear programme.
Who are Israel and Iran’s allies?
Iran’s most important allies are the Shiite militias in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq that it supports with money, weapons and training.
The Lebanese militia Hezbollah had long been the strongest of those, but its clashes with Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, including an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, have left it seriously weakened. Tehran also lost its only state ally in the Middle East, Syria, with the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels would likely be eager to play a part in an all-out war between Israel and Iran.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Houthis have been firing ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, in addition to attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea.
In July 2024, a Houthi drone hit a building in central Tel Aviv, killing a man and injuring several others, in the first deadly attack of its kind on Israel’s soil. In early May 2025, a Houthi missile struck near Israel’s main airport, leading numerous foreign airlines to suspend flights in and out.
Iran has warm relations with Russia, though the latter’s war in Ukraine would likely limit its ability to provide assistance in a conflict. The Islamic Republic also has good ties with China, which has bought Iranian oil even though these barrels remain sanctioned by the US and allies.
As for Israel, US and UK forces helped to destroy some of the missiles and drones Iran launched at the country in 2024. The US military also announced steps to beef up its presence in the Middle East, adding ships, fighter planes and ballistic missile defence vessels.
However, the Israeli operation poses the first major foreign-policy crisis of US President Donald Trump’s second term, after he had repeatedly urged Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to proceed with a strike.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
