The perils of creating a power vacuum in IranA black flag flies over Tehran, Iran, after the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. If they secure weapons-usable nuclear material, the logic of nuclear deterrence itself would be broken. The state that currently maintains custodianship over Iran's nuclear material -- however imperfect or hostile -- is the only entity with which an enforceable constraint could be achieved. Destroy it, and you make resolving the nuclear threat both more urgent and effectively impossible. Lower-grade nuclear material, meanwhile, could be repurposed into radiological dispersal devices ("dirty bombs") capable of contaminating urban areas.

Source: Bangkok Post March 05, 2026 03:55 UTC