Iran vs Israel: Is the Nuclear Threat a Reality or Just 'Hypothetical'?

The war between Israel and Iran, marked by missile attacks on each other, including in civilian areas, is fast escalating and is posing a threat to the Middle East and beyond, as nuclear facilities have been targeted, making the nuclear threat practical at the moment, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with Sputnik Radio.

"All of this [the conflict between Iran and Israel] leads not just to escalation, but to a direct threat to the region and the world due to the fact that strikes are being carried out on peaceful atomic or nuclear facilities. It is about the nuclear threat, which has absolutely no hypothetical dimension, but a practical one," Zakharova emphasised.

Since last Friday, Israel has launched a series of airstrikes under "Operation Rising Lion," targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) caused significant damage to the Natanz facility in Iran’s Isfahan province, where nuclear centrifuges are located.

Israel had struck the underground uranium enrichment plant at the complex, the IAEA stated.

"Based on continued analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery collected after Friday's attacks, the IAEA has identified additional elements that indicate direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls at Natanz," the UN nuclear watchdog posted on X.

The IAEA's assessment of the damage at Natanz has raised serious concerns about potential radiation leaks.

Zakharova's words were echoed by Dr. Abhinav Pandya, the founder and CEO of Usanas Foundation, a Udaipur-based national security, and foreign policy think tank in India.

"The nuclear threat in the Middle East is something very real, it's not hypothetical anymore and there are obvious reasons for that. Israel is hellbent on regime change in Iran and the dismantling of its nuclear assets," Pandya told Sputnik India.

However, Iran would not hesitate to retaliate with full force if the Islamic Republic perceives its existence to be under threat from Israel, he added.

On the other hand, Israel considers now "the best time to strike Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and dismantle it completely," concerned that any delay will cost it the chance to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb, the expert said.

"Moreover, the American entry into the conflict could draw powers like China and Russia on the Iranian side, making the likelihood of full-fledged conventional nuclear war a strong possibility," the think tanker suggested.

Meanwhile, Dr.Fazzur Rahman Siddiqui, a Senior Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) in New Delhi, believes that the nuclear threat is a "mere rhetoric".

He highlighted that Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons, at least not yet, and while the US and Israel have, they are unlikely to use the atomic bomb on Iran.

"It is next to impossible to use a nuclear weapon against a country like Iran and one must not forget that the only time an atomic bomb was used was 80 years ago against Japan. Furthermore, why would one have to drop a nuclear weapon when far greater destruction is possible through conventional bombs and missiles? Just look at present-day Gaza, the kind of devastation the Israeli military has caused there has turned the once-bustling enclave into ruins," Siddiqui noted.

The destruction that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have inflicted in Gaza is equal to dropping 5 nuclear weapons there and there's no reason whatsoever for Israel or its ally America to go for atomic bombs during the current confrontation with Iran, he concluded.

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