How US and Israel have sabotaged Iran’s N-programme for decades
By MNS
THE WORLDVIEW
June 14, 2025
Through assassinations, cyber warfare, and military strikes, Israel and the US have waged an ugly campaign to stop Tehran from acquiring the capacity to build nuclear weapons
IN a fairer world, all sovereign states would be equally entitled to build robust systems of national defence, including nuclear deterrence, if they so choose. Yet history proves otherwise. While countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel built nuclear arsenals without facing international repercussions, others — particularly those outside the Western alliance system — are subjected to threats, sabotage, and crippling sanctions for pursuing the same dream.
Nowhere is this injustice more stark than in the case of Iran. Since the early 2000s, the Islamic Republic has faced a relentless campaign — largely orchestrated by the United States and Israel — to stall, undermine, or destroy its nuclear ambitions. Despite being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has endured a blend of covert operations, diplomatic isolation, cyber sabotage, and even the assassination of its scientists — all in a concerted effort to prevent it from attaining nuclear capability.
Israeli leaders have made their stance crystal clear. “No Islamic fundamentalist regime will ever be allowed to have a nuclear weapon,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once declared. This policy of nuclear denial — backed and often co-executed by the United States — has shaped two decades of regional tension, shadow warfare, and periodic military escalation.
Diplomatic isolation
The first layer of the anti-Iran campaign has always been economic and diplomatic. In the early 2000s, Washington began assembling a broad international consensus to isolate Iran through sanctions, accusing Tehran of pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of peaceful energy development. The United Nations, at the behest of the US and its allies, imposed multiple rounds of sanctions targeting Iran’s financial systems, energy exports, and technological imports crucial for nuclear development.
These restrictions intensified during the Obama administration but were temporarily eased under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The deal, negotiated between Iran and six world powers, limited Iran’s nuclear enrichment activities in return for sanctions relief. However, this breakthrough collapsed in 2018 when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the agreement, reinstating “maximum pressure” sanctions. Iran, in response, began enriching uranium beyond JCPOA limits.
Cyber warfare
Alongside overt diplomacy ran a covert cyber war. In what is widely seen as the most sophisticated cyber-attack in history, the Stuxnet virus — jointly developed by US and Israeli intelligence — was deployed in 2009-10 to target Iran’s Natanz enrichment facility. The malware caused thousands of centrifuges to spin out of control and fail, setting back Iran’s nuclear timeline by years.
Stuxnet was a watershed moment. It marked the first time a digital weapon inflicted real-world physical damage, blurring the lines between cyber and conventional warfare. The operation demonstrated the technical precision with which Israel and the US were willing to strike — without firing a single missile.
Targeted assassinations
If cyber sabotage disrupted hardware, a more chilling tactic was used to target the human capital behind Iran’s nuclear drive. Between 2010 and 2012, a series of high-profile Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated in Tehran and other cities. The killings — carried out with magnetic bombs, remote detonation, and motorbike assassins — were widely attributed to Israel’s Mossad.
Among the victims were:
Masoud Alimohammadi, killed by a car bomb in 2010.
Majid Shahriari, whose car was bombed the same year.
Darioush Rezaeinejad and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, both gunned down in daylight attacks.
These assassinations created a climate of fear within Iran’s scientific community. But the most dramatic strike came in November 2020, when Iran’s top nuclear physicist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed outside Tehran. Reportedly using a satellite-controlled machine gun, the precision and execution of the hit pointed strongly to Israeli involvement, though no official admission followed.
Sabotaging facilities
Iran’s nuclear infrastructure has also been the target of physical sabotage. In July 2020, a powerful explosion rocked the Natanz uranium enrichment site, destroying a centrifuge assembly facility. While Iranian officials labelled it “an act of sabotage”, no one claimed responsibility. Subsequent blasts at missile factories, power plants, and research centres suggested a broader covert campaign, with experts again pointing to Mossad’s deep infiltration inside Iran.
These operations have forced Iran to relocate critical infrastructure to underground or highly fortified locations, slowing progress but also hardening its defences.
Proxy conflict and regional escalation
The nuclear conflict cannot be divorced from the broader Iran-Israel power struggle playing out across the Middle East. In Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, Iran’s support for proxy forces — chiefly Hezbollah — has prompted hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on arms convoys, weapons depots, and IRGC positions. These attacks are designed not only to roll back Iran’s regional influence but also to prevent any future nuclear delivery mechanisms.
The broader regional strategy is clear: containment through attrition. Israel’s military doctrine treats Iran’s nuclear capability as an existential threat, and it is willing to escalate militarily to prevent a “second Holocaust,” as some Israeli leaders frame it.
A conflict unfolding in real time
The year 2025 has seen the most direct confrontation yet. Following intelligence reports that claimed Iran may have enriched uranium close to weapons-grade purity, Israel has launched a new wave of pre-emptive strikes on suspected nuclear facilities. Iran, in turn, has responded with missile and drone attacks targeting Israeli military installations and oil infrastructure.
Unlike previous periods of tension, the current escalation risks spiralling into open war. With regional actors polarised and global powers distracted or divided, the situation is perilously close to ignition.
Double standard at the heart of the crisis
Underlying this entire saga is a fundamental contradiction. The nations most committed to preventing nuclear proliferation are themselves nuclear powers. Israel has never signed the NPT and is believed to hold an arsenal of up to 90 nuclear warheads. The US, the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons in war, continues to modernise its stockpile.
Iran, meanwhile, maintains that its programme is peaceful and defensive in nature. While its secrecy raises suspicions, the unequal treatment it receives — compared to countries like India, Pakistan, or even North Korea — fuels resentment and justifies its pursuit.
The US-Israeli campaign to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions has been effective in delaying weaponisation. But it has been a particularly ugly drive, replete with falsehoods, deceptions, and even assassinations. The overt/covert campaign has eroded diplomatic channels, and fostered a cycle of hostility and escalation that threatens the wider region.