June 12, 2025 (EIRNS)—FLASH (11:30 p.m.): A little after 8 p.m. ET, Israel began bombing Iran. Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that the goal of the operation is “to strike Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, Iran’s ballistic missile factories, and Iran’s military capabilities.” The operation will continue as long as is needed, he said, until the mission is completed. In addition to missile and other strikes, top military and scientific leaders were targeted for assassination, both by pinpoint strikes and by Mossad squads operating in the country.
The IDF in an official statement said that it has launched a “precise, preemptive strike” in Iran, “with the goal of damaging Iran’s nuclear program and in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel. Dozens of Israeli Air Force aircraft recently completed the opening blow, which included strikes on dozens of military targets, including nuclear-related sites in various areas in Iran,” the Israel Defense Forces said.
Among the sites that were struck was Natanz, one of Iran’s major nuclear sites. It is widely known that nothing less than a nuclear weapon would be capable of actually destroying Natanz and other nuclear facilities, which are deep underground.
Iranian state TV has confirmed that IRGC Chief-of-Staff Hossein Salami was killed. Other reports are that General Gholam-Ali Rashid, and the nuclear scientists Dr. Tehranchi and Dr. Fereydoon Abbasi were also assassinated, among many others. Supreme Leader Khamenei is alive and safe, and said a “bitter and painful fate” awaits Israel. Everyone is now waiting to see what Iran’s response will be—and if the ensuing escalation will draw the United States into the war directly on Israel’s side.
China’s Global Times reminded its readers that “White House envoy Steve Witkoff privately warned top Senate Republicans last week that Iran could unleash a mass casualty response if Israel bombs their nuclear facilities, Axios reported, citing a U.S. official and a source with direct knowledge.”
A bit before 11 p.m. ET, a new wave of Israeli attacks was reported to be underway.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement saying that Israel took “unilateral action against Iran” tonight, stressing that the U.S. was not involved and warning that Tehran should not target the U.S. in response. “Our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for [their] self-defense…. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners,” he added. “Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
Netanyahu, in his nationwide video statement, did everything possible to pull the Trump administration into the war—if it wasn’t involved already by allowing the Israeli attack to proceed. Netanyahu thanked Trump “for his steadfast stance…. Time and again, he made it clear: Iran must never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons…. I thank him for his consistent support of our country throughout all the years of his presidency.”
President Trump has reportedly called an emergency security cabinet meeting for Friday, 11 a.m.
•••••••
Predictably, just as the Ukraine crisis is showing signs of containment, due to the dogged determination of Presidents Trump and Putin to chart a joint path back from the brink of nuclear world war, the British have redoubled their efforts to incite a U.S.-backed Israeli attack on Iran—possibly with nuclear weapons.
“Israel Appears Ready To Attack Iran,” the New York Times wrote hopefully on June 11. “Israel is ready to launch an operation into Iran,” BBC agreed. There is endless media chatter on whether or not the United States would join such an Israeli attack; whether nuclear weapons would be used; which are the U.S. military bases in the Middle East that are likely targets for retaliation; and on and on.
President Trump is being lobbied and pressured from within his administration and without, to go eyeball-to-eyeball with Iran over the issue not of their having a nuclear bomb—the Iranians have agreed fully to that demand—but to deny them the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, a right which should not be denied to any sovereign nation. The more extreme among the war party are openly calling for the U.S. and Israel to jointly drop tactical nuclear weapons on Iran’s nuclear program, in order to destroy it.
Fortunately, not everyone in Washington is that crazy.
“A single nuclear weapon today could kill millions in just minutes,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard warned in a dramatic video released June 10. “As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers…. So, it’s up to us, the people, to speak up and demand an end to this madness. We must reject that path to nuclear war, and work toward a world where no one has to live in fear of a nuclear holocaust.”
Gabbard’s intervention was urgently needed, to remind the world of what is at stake. And cooler heads may well prevail around Iran, as they seem to be doing on Ukraine. But what about the next strategic fire that the British arsonists set, whether in the Taiwan-China theater or by fomenting geopolitical disputes between India and Pakistan (both nuclear powers), or even between India and China? What if British-sponsored provocateurs succeed in fanning the flames of civil strife in the highly polarized United States, leading to calls, also originating in London, for hardline military responses to the crisis?
Lyndon LaRouche wrote in an Aug. 28, 1980 article “Poland: A Trotskyite Insurrection?” “Putting the military up against a rioting ghetto population is the worst possible initial approach to an eruption of such forms of rioting: Local law enforcement officers … will use more effective means.” LaRouche added: “This approach demands remedies for those legitimate grievances which created popular susceptibility to manipulation by the provocateurs…. There is no more effective balm for the rage of a frustrated population than that population’s perception that it is being offered true justice.”
That approach, of offering true justice based on redressing legitimate grievances, applies equally to Los Angeles or Chicago, as it does to the whole world, where nearly half the world’s population live under the U.S. poverty line of $6.85 per day, including about 700 million who live in extreme poverty; 300 million people in Africa (1 in 5) face hunger; 2 billion people lack access to clean water; and 122 million have been forcibly displaced by war.
The cause of the wars, and of the economic devastation mentioned above, is the desperately bankrupt trans-Atlantic financial system, with its headquarters in the City of London. That is the “arsonist” that must be stopped in its tracks, by putting their deadly system out of its misery through bankruptcy reorganization, and taking the needed steps to construct a new international security and development architecture, as Lyndon LaRouche specified in his June 2014 “The Four New Laws To Save the U.S.A. Now! Not An Option: An Immediate Necessity”
Are you wondering if it’s really possible to stop the arsonist, for good, and how to go about doing it? Then you need to attend the July 12-13 European Schiller Institute conference, both in person and online. And participate in the meetings of the International Peace Coalition, each and every Friday, at 11 a.m. ET.
