The Israeli Air Force has done in days what years of diplomacy failed to accomplish. In a four-day bombing campaign that has already surpassed the entire munitions payload of last June’s Operation Rising Lion, Israel has systematically dismantled Iran’s missile arsenal, decapitated its military leadership, and — in the operation’s most consequential strike — destroyed a secret underground nuclear weapons development site on the outskirts of Tehran that Iran had spent months building in the shadows.

The timing could not be more alarming. Just days before the strikes, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff revealed that Iranian negotiators, during nuclear talks with the United States, had boasted of possessing approximately 460 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity — enough, by IAEA calculations, to produce between 9 and 11 nuclear bombs after further enrichment to weapons-grade. Iran’s nuclear ambitions were no longer theoretical. They were measurable, storable, and nearly deliverable.

A Nuclear Program Built in Secret — Then Destroyed

IDF Chief Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin revealed on Tuesday that Israeli jets destroyed the underground site, named Minzadehei, located on the northeast outskirts of Tehran. The site was not a storage facility — it was an active weapons development compound where Iranian nuclear scientists worked covertly to develop the components necessary to weaponize enriched uranium.

“Iran did not halt its military nuclear activity, and continued to develop the capabilities required for nuclear weapons, while transferring infrastructure to an underground site protected from aerial attack,” Defrin said.

The site came to the IDF’s attention through painstaking intelligence work. Israeli operatives tracked nuclear scientists attempting to reach the facility clandestinely. By following their movements, the IDF identified the location, assessed its purpose, and executed a precise strike on the compound.

The destruction of Minzadehei is the second major blow to Iran’s nuclear weapons development program in less than a year. In June 2025, Israel’s Operation Rising Lion destroyed dozens of weapons development sites, effectively shutting down the delivery and weaponization side of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran rebuilt — secretly. It transferred what it could to underground tunnels and hidden complexes. The IDF found them anyway.

What Iran Told Witkoff

The acknowledgment that Iran possessed uranium sufficient for 11 nuclear devices did not come from Israeli intelligence alone. It came from the Iranians themselves.

Witkoff disclosed on March 3 that Iranian negotiators during recent U.S. nuclear talks acknowledged a stockpile of approximately 460 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity. This figure aligns precisely with a confidential IAEA report dated February 27, which estimated Iran’s pre-strike inventory at roughly 440.9 kilograms enriched to the same level.

Natural uranium contains roughly 0.7% of the fissile isotope uranium-235. Civilian reactor fuel is enriched to 3–5%. Weapons-grade uranium requires 90% purity. Iran’s 60%-enriched stockpile sits just below that threshold — and critically, the technical jump from 60% to 90% is far shorter and faster than the earlier stages of enrichment. Iran had essentially done the hard work.

The IAEA calculates that roughly 42–50 kilograms of 60%-enriched uranium suffice to produce one bomb’s worth of weapons-grade material after further processing. At 440–460 kilograms, Iran had the raw material for 9 to 11 devices.

Iran claims its nuclear program is “peaceful.” That claim is now impossible to sustain. A nation enriching uranium to 60% — with no civilian application at that level — while concealing nuclear scientists in secret underground compounds, while building ballistic missiles at a rate of dozens per month, while its leadership publicly declares its goal is the destruction of the State of Israel, is not running a peaceful energy program.

300 Missile Launchers Destroyed; 50 Percent of Iran’s Active Arsenal Gone

Since the start of the current operation, named “Roaring Lion,” the Israeli Air Force has destroyed 300 Iranian missile launchers and conducted over 1,600 sorties, dropping more than 4,000 bombs on Iranian targets — surpassing the entire munitions payload of Operation Rising Lion in under four days. A military official confirmed that 50 percent of Iran’s active ballistic missile launchers have been destroyed or rendered inoperable.

The numbers behind those launchers tell the full story of what was at stake. On the eve of Operation Rising Lion in June 2025, Iran possessed an estimated 3,000 missiles. That stockpile was cut to 1,500 by the end of the June conflict. But Iran rebuilt aggressively. By the time “Roaring Lion” commenced, Iran’s arsenal had climbed back to 2,500 missiles and was accelerating by dozens per month. Israeli intelligence assessed that Iran was targeting a stockpile of 8,000 missiles by 2027.

“These missiles constitute a real, direct, and existential threat to the State of Israel and to the Middle East,” the IDF stated.

The strikes targeted Iran’s central explosives production site — which supplied warhead material for ballistic missiles, rockets, UAVs, and cruise missiles — along with four key facilities that produced ballistic missile engines. Additionally, the IDF struck factories manufacturing advanced anti-tank systems intended for Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations, along with research infrastructure whose destruction is expected to set back Iran’s weapons development by years.

The Decapitation of Iran’s Military Command

Operation Roaring Lion opened on Saturday with what IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani called the largest opening salvo in Israeli history: 200 fighter jets striking over 500 targets across Iran in a single coordinated wave, deploying 500 munitions in a narrow, time-sensitive window — operating over 1,000 miles from Israeli airspace.

The first phase targeted Iran’s aerial defense systems, clearing the operational path for everything that followed. The second phase struck missile launchers loaded and ready to fire at Israeli civilians. The third phase — which Shoshani described as historically unprecedented in its coordination with U.S. forces — targeted Iran’s senior military leadership.

In the opening minute of the operation, 40 senior Iranian commanders were eliminated simultaneously across two locations. Among those killed: Ali Shamkhani, adviser to Khamenei and secretary of the Iranian Security Council; Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Mohammad Shirazi, head of the military bureau of the Supreme Leader for nearly four decades; Saleh Asadi, senior intelligence officer of the Supreme Command; Aziz Nasirzadeh, Iran’s defense minister; and Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.

And then, the Supreme Leader himself.

“Khamenei was the mastermind of the axis of evil as we know it today,” Shoshani said. “He was responsible not only for the repression of his own people, but also for a global network that spread across the world.” Shoshani added: “Today we can confirm he is done. The State of Israel stands stronger, and the world is a safer place.”

The Sages and the Logic of Preemption

Iran was not hiding its intentions. Its leaders declared openly, repeatedly, and in writing that Israel must be destroyed. Its nuclear scientists were working in secret tunnels. Its missile production lines were running around the clock. Its enriched uranium stockpile was nine bombs deep and growing.

The destruction of Minzadehei, the elimination of Iran’s military chain of command, the gutting of its missile production infrastructure — these are not acts of aggression. They are the fulfillment of the most basic obligation a state owes its citizens: to see the threat clearly, to act decisively, and not to wait until the enemy’s capability matches his stated intention.