Israel Targets Iran's Nuclear Program with Key Killings

• Israel has killed at least 14 Iranian scientists in targeted strikes.
• Experts argue military force can't erase Iran's nuclear knowledge.
• Iran claims its nuclear efforts remain peaceful despite attacks.

Israel has escalated its covert war on Iran’s nuclear program by killing at least 14 Iranian nuclear scientists, according to Ambassador Joshua Zarka in an interview with the Associated Press. The operation, part of a broader military offensive that included U.S. stealth bomber airstrikes, marks an unprecedented blow to the human capital driving Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“The fact that the whole group disappeared is basically throwing back the program by a number of years, by quite a number of years,” said Zarka, who added the targets were involved in “the creation and the fabrication and the production of (a) nuclear weapon.” Nine of the scientists were reportedly killed in the initial wave of Israeli strikes on June 13, including specialists in chemistry, materials science, explosives, and physics.

However, international nuclear experts remain skeptical about the long-term effectiveness of this approach. “Strikes cannot destroy the knowledge Iran has acquired over several decades, nor any regime ambition to deploy that knowledge to build a nuclear weapon,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy. European governments advocate for a negotiated solution, arguing that military action alone cannot dismantle Iran’s scientific capabilities.

Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, a view supported by U.S. intelligence, which has not assessed any active bomb pursuit. Nonetheless, Israeli officials insist that Iran retains the capacity to rapidly develop a nuclear weapon.

Also Read: Iran-Israel Conflict Escalates with US Airstrikes

On June 18, Iranian state media reported the death of Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, another nuclear scientist killed in an Israeli strike after surviving a previous attack that killed his son.