US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday seemed to equivocate about providing Israel with 30,000-pound, bunker-buster bombs that could destroy Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordow. Israel “already has bunker busters,” he told Fox News.
Israel has been seeking these weapons from the US since the 2000s and the George W. Bush administration. So far, no Republican or Democratic president, including President Donald Trump in his 2016-2020 term, has agreed to provide them.
When Witkoff said Israel has bunker busters, he was likely referring to 2,000-pound bombs and some other smaller bombs the Joe Biden administration delivered to Israel for large parts of the Israel-Hamas War but then froze. The current administration resumed the deliveries when Trump reentered office.
While it is true that some smaller bombs, such as the 2,000-pounders, can breach a small amount underground, and IDF has carried out airstrikes against Hamas underground tunnels throughout the war, no one has used such bombs to breach dozens of meters underground, let alone to breach a mountain and then additional dozens of meters under the mountain, such as at Fordow.
Israel ‘lacks capacity’ to destroy Iran’s nuclear program
Because Israel has only the smaller bunker busters and lacks the 30,000-pound “mother of all bombs” (MOAB), many military analysts say it still lacks the capacity to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump’s recent statements indicate that he intends to give diplomacy time, and Witkoff’s statement to Fox News, which seemed to not even acknowledge Israel’s challenge of striking Fordow, seemed to vacillate about providing Jerusalem with the MOAB anytime soon.
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