The United States and Israel launched their most ambitious attacks on Iran in decades on Saturday in an operation that killed Supreme ‌Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had and actually were armed with nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message,” he said on Saturday. The International Atomic Energy Agency and the US intelligence community have separately assessed that Iran shuttered a nuclear weapons development programme in 2003. No other country has done so without eventually producing nuclear weapons. He said Iran’s “menacing activities directly endanger the United States, ⁠our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world”.

Source: The Irish Times March 01, 2026 16:29 UTC