Stealth bombers landing at UK bases ‘in days’ after Trump pressures Starmer: report
American stealth bombers are expected to land at U.K. military bases within days to join the U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran, according to reports.
Citing unnamed senior Western officials, The Telegraph reported Wednesday that air bases at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire are being readied for the arrival of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers — the $2 billion strategic bomber is also known as the world’s most expensive aircraft.
The bombers are understood to be landing at the U.K. bases “in a matter of days” as Washington intensifies operations in the region, the outlet reported.
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, the U.S. military used stealth B-2 bombers to strike Iranian ballistic missile facilities Feb. 28 as part of the launch of Operation Epic Fury.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that B-2 stealth bombers, which were equipped with 2,000-pound bombs, struck Iranian “hardened” ballistic missile sites.
The U.S. was cleared to use British bases for limited strikes on Iran’s missile capabilities on Feb. 29 after Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed off on the plan, and while U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey stated Britain had “stepped up alongside the Americans.”
Starmer said the authorization was granted to protect U.K. and U.S. allies as the conflict escalated. He had previously said he would not allow American forces to use U.K. bases for offensive operations in the region.
Tensions have since been heightened in the U.K. by security incidents in Cyprus. RAF Akrotiri, a key British military base on the island, was struck by a suspected drone on March 2, causing minor damage.
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The unmanned aircraft was reported to resemble an Iranian-made Shahed drone, similar to models used by Russia in Ukraine and by Tehran’s regional proxies.
The Ministry of Defense said force-protection measures were at the “highest level” and that the base had taken steps to defend personnel. About 4,000 service members and their families are based at RAF Akrotiri.
The U.S. State Department raised its travel advisory for Cyprus to Level 3, urging Americans to reconsider travel because of the threat of armed conflict and limited consular assistance in parts of the country.
Non-emergency embassy staff and family members were authorized to leave. Officials said the advisory change reflected adjustments in embassy operations rather than a direct change in underlying risk.
EX-CENTCOM CHIEF DETAILS ‘EXQUISITE INTELLIGENCE’ BEHIND IRAN STRIKES, SAYS NEXT STEPS HINGE ON ‘MISSILE MATH’
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Trump had called Britain “uncooperative” and slammed Starmer as “not Winston Churchill” after Starmer initially rebuffed a U.S. request to use U.K. bases to attack Iran, according to The Associated Press.
Trump has also condemned Britain’s agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands, home to the Diego Garcia base, to Mauritius.
British-Iranian actress asks ‘where are the college campuses’ protesting the Iranian regime
British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi called out progressive activists for their lack of outrage over the regime’s human rights violations before President Donald Trump conducted military strikes against the nation.
The “Rings of Power” actress appeared on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” Wednesday to discuss the ongoing war against Iran and concerns over the vacuum of leadership in the nation after the U.S. eliminated its leaders.
She agreed with concerns that an ISIS-level threat could take over the country but noted that several human rights activists and organizations did not acknowledge civilian deaths until after the U.S. targeted Iran.
“For people who care about international law as I do, I’m getting plenty of messages from colleagues in entertainment and saying, ‘I’m so sorry in this moment, what’s happening to your people.’ Thank you, but where were you a few weeks ago, when tens of thousands of Iranians were being killed by their own regime?” Boniadi said. “This is a regime that has been violating international law for decades.”
Tapper remarked that he also hadn’t “really heard a ton” from international progressive activists regarding Iran’s human rights violations, even after the nation launched hundreds of missile and drone strikes against other Muslim-majority countries in retaliation.
“I mean, if any other country did that, I think there’d be a huge hue and cry and huge marches in the streets. Iran does it, and there really isn’t that result in the progressive community. What do you make of that?” Tapper asked.
EXILED IRANIAN CROWN PRINCE SAYS US STRIKES MARK ‘BEGINNING OF THE VERY END’ FOR REGIME
“Look, in 1979, progressives world over, including in Iran, were all too willing to sacrifice women‘s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and every other basic human rights at the altar of anti-imperialism. Are we going to do the same in this moment? Are we really caring more about whose hands are on the trigger, or are we going to care about human lives, civilian lives?” Boniadi answered.
“This is a regime that has violated human rights,” she continued. “International law has wreaked havoc on the region, domestic oppression, transnational repression, hostage diplomacy, destabilizing the region. And now, it’s killing fellow Muslims in neighboring countries. Where is your outrage? Where are the college campuses?”
Boniadi, whose family fled Tehran for England following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been a longtime supporter of Iranian protesters and has previously used her career to highlight atrocities conducted by the Iranian regime.
PETE HEGSETH CRITICIZES ‘FAKE NEWS’ COVERAGE OF IRAN STRIKES, SAYS ONLY TRAGEDIES MAKE FRONT PAGE
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During the Academy Women’s Luncheon in 2022, she appealed to several Oscar-winning Hollywood figures to show support for female protesters in Iran following the death of a 22-year-old after she was arrested for wearing her hijab too loosely.
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“We owe it to our counterparts in Iran to stand with them as they fight for their most basic human rights,” Boniadi said.
Held at gunpoint at 9, Iranian refugee turned pastor now prays for Iran’s hour of freedom
An Iranian refugee held at gunpoint at school before fleeing Iran during the 1979 revolution is calling for hope, democracy and prayers for his homeland as the U.S. joins Israel in targeting Iran’s ruling clerical regime.
David Nasser, now an American pastor, spoke to Fox News Digital six days after Operation Epic Fury was launched in Iran, which reignited haunting memories for him and of the time when he was 9 years old.
“As a child, my family and I were forced to escape Iran and run for our lives,” Nasser, President and CEO of David Nasser Outreach recalled.
“We found safe harbor as refugees granted political asylum here in the United States,” Nasser said, describing how his father had been a high-ranking officer in Iran’s military, meaning “his family became targets as the government collapsed.”
“One of my most vivid memories of realizing that nothing was ever going to be the same again was at a school assembly on a military base — a soldier called out three names and mine was called first,” he said.
“When I got to the front, the soldier dropped a piece of paper, took a gun out of his holster and put it to my head and quoted the Quran. He told me that he was sent to make an example out of me,” Nasser added.
The principal intervened, but the message he relayed was unmistakable. Nasser recalled.
“They’re killing everybody who’s anybody. They’re trying to make an example out of people like our family, and they’re using fear,” he remembered hearing at the time.
“That’s one of my first memories of the revolution, but really just being completely scared for my life.”
Soon after, Nasser’s family devised an escape plan. They would pretend Nasser’s mother needed emergency heart surgery in Switzerland and buy round-trip tickets to avoid raising suspicion.
“We bought round-trip airline tickets like we were going and coming back, but we weren’t coming back. We were running for our lives,” he said.
KHAMENEI IS DEAD — AND IRANIANS DARE TO HOPE FOR FREEDOM AGAIN AFTER DECADES OF TYRANNY
At the airport, Nasser remembers gripping his father’s hand tightly and hearing words he will never forget.
“‘If they find out we’re escaping, they’re going to kill us right here on the spot,’ my father said as his hands shook, holding mine. The last time I was in Iran, I was a 9-year-old little boy running for my life,” he said.
Now, watching events unfold in Iran from the safety of the U.S., Nasser said his heart remains with millions of desperate Iranians facing uncertainty.
“We see them — I see them, I hear them. My heart is beating really fast for them right now with hope and with prayers for their protection and their provision,” Nasser said.
“Protection. I’m praying for protection for them. I want to be a part of the provision for them. If Iran transitions from a theocracy to a democracy, I want to help rebuild.”
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“If this moment actually comes, and they go from a theocracy to a democracy, I want to be a part of the solution — for that 9-year-old little boy that I once was. I want to do this for him.”
Beyond political change, Nasser, who is also teaching pastor at New Vision Baptist Church, said he takes solace in what he describes as spiritual transformation already underway, calling it “the fastest-growing church in the world right now or the underground church in Iran.”
“We know there’s at minimum 4 million, at maximum 8 million Christians right now in Iran,” he said.
“In Iran, if you convert from Islam to Christianity, that can be a death sentence. If they come into your home, and you’re gathering for Christian worship, they will take your home title, you will lose your home.
“They’re in prison. They’re being tortured. They’re being ridiculed. They’re being mocked.
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“Above all, I came to America, and it was a land of opportunity. And I was given the gift of democracy. So, I would love to see democracy in Iran, where all the boys and girls are afforded what I was afforded when I managed to escape.”
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls on Trump admin to ‘take care’ of Iran for good
Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the Trump administration’s Operation Epic Fury as an attempt to “neuter” Iran’s military power inside and beyond its borders, including its apparent ties to Hezbollah.
Joining “Special Report” Wednesday, Rice praised U.S.-Israeli joint strikes against Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while emphasizing the operation does not mark the beginning of a new war.
“Iran has been at war with us for at least 47 years,” she explained. “If you ask people about Iraq, what was the source of many of our casualties in Iraq, you’ll get estimates as high as 75 or 80% of them were due to Iranian-made roadside bombs.”
Rice, who served as national security advisor and secretary of state under former President George W. Bush during 9/11 and the Iraq War, said Iran has expanded military capability through its reach to international terrorist groups.
“They also have developed the military capability to reach outside the boundaries of Iran, including Hezbollah and Hamas, which they both arm and equip,” Rice said.
Six American service members have been killed, and 20 Iranian ships have been struck or sunk during Operation Epic Fury, which has utilized more than 50,000 troops, 200 fighters and two aircraft carriers, according to CENTCOM.
HEGSETH SAYS THE LEADER BEHIND EFFORT TO ASSASSINATE TRUMP HAS BEEN ‘HUNTED DOWN AND KILLED’ IN IRAN
The Trump administration’s coordinated strikes with Israel follow failed diplomatic efforts to negotiate Iran’s nuclear program, which Iran refused to abandon.
“To say that this regime was not a threat … it’s ahistorical,” Rice said. “They have been a threat for a long time.”
One goal of Operation Epic Fury, she said, is to strip Iran of its military capabilities and ability to coordinate with proxy groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.
“If you can render Iran essentially incapable of military action against us and against our allies, that’s worthy,” Rice told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier. “And I think what they’re trying to do is to neuter Iran as a military power in the region.”
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The former Bush cabinet member said Iran now faces a “complicated” future and urged the Trump administration to capitalize on what she described as a moment of vulnerability.
“They are essentially, at this moment, defenseless,” Rice asserted. “They won’t always be defenseless, and so the decision is to really, at this point, take care of it and render them incapable of those activities.”
FBI spox unleashes on media’s ‘transparent spin job’ that recent firings were ‘devastating’ to Iran work
An FBI spokesman tore into the media on Wednesday for claiming a string of recent firings at the bureau were detrimental to its work on Iran, alleging the reports were poorly sourced and “total BS.”
Ben Williamson, FBI assistant director of public affairs, excoriated CBS News and MS Now on social media after their reporting raised alarm about FBI Director Kash Patel’s recent decision to fire about a dozen employees for allegedly violating their ethics and the bureau’s mission.
The spokesman accused the media of attempting to stir up worries that the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency was ill-prepared to combat threats Iran posed to the United States in the wake of President Donald Trump launching a war against the country on Saturday.
“I can play the ‘sources’ game too – the difference is mine know what they’re talking about,” Williamson wrote, saying he spoke with several FBI executives and supervisors who confirmed that “only 3” of those fired worked on Iran matters.
His remark came in response to a CBS News report that a source called the firings “‘devastating’ to the FBI’s Iran program and said that these agents have confidential informants in the U.S.-Iranian community who are not replaceable.”
Williamson said that characterization was “total BS,” adding the FBI “surges resources and personnel from all over the country to prepare for these things.”
The firings occurred last week after Patel revealed that his and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’ phone records were subpoenaed as part of the Biden Department of Justice’s sweeping investigations into President Donald Trump and his allies. While the subpoena documents have not been made public, Patel and Wiles were private citizens at the time and known witnesses in the DOJ’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents.
The Biden FBI also allegedly recorded a phone call between Wiles and her lawyer in 2023 with her lawyer’s permission, unbeknownst to Wiles, two law enforcement sources said. A lawyer representing Wiles at the time disputed that claim, telling Axios he was unaware of a call with his client being recorded.
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Most of those Patel fired worked on the classified documents probe and the majority worked in counterintelligence, a source familiar with the firings told Fox News Digital.
Williamson wrote on X that ahead of the terminations, the FBI had a “record year” in counterintelligence in 2025, notching 35% more arrests than the prior year and capturing six fugitives on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list. The spokesman said the operations were “not something run by three people out of one unit” and that the media reports were a “transparent spin job by people mad about firings.”
Asked for comment, Williamson pointed to his public remarks.
Fox News Digital reached out to MS Now and CBS News for comment on Wednesday but did not immediately receive replies.
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Patel’s firings have drawn praise from some in Trump’s base who say the Biden DOJ and FBI abused their authority to target Trump while he was running for president and that the terminations represent overdue accountability.
The firings, however, have also drawn condemnation from critics, including the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA), which represents thousands of employees and has maintained that agents’ actions are typically the result of following orders within a chain of command.
“The FBIAA condemns [the Feb. 25] unlawful termination of FBI Special Agents, which—like other firings by Director Patel—violates the due process rights of those who risk their lives to protect our country,” the FBIAA said. “These actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardizing the Bureau’s ability to meet its recruitment goals—ultimately putting the nation at greater risk.”
As airstrikes rain down on the Iranian regime, can a fractured opposition unite to lead if it falls?
As U.S. and Israeli air forces continue to attack Iran’s leadership and facilities with devastating military strikes, there are intense discussions unfolding about who will rule the country if the regime falls.
One of the biggest questions being asked by Iran experts is whether the fragmented opposition groups can come together and unite in defeating the regime.
Lawdan Bazargan, an Iranian political and human rights activist who was imprisoned by the regime for her dissident activities in the 1980s, told Fox News Digital there is a dangerous precedent for a total unified opposition.
“Unity cannot mean everyone stands under my flag,” she said.
“That model failed Iran once before. In 1979, one figure [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] absorbed moral authority while claiming he wasn’t seeking office and ended up consolidating absolute power. It’s also not fair to automatically position someone who has not lived in Iran for decades as the interim authority of over 90 million people. That fuels more mistrust, not less.”
She also warned about the need to avoid a Venezuela situation in which Nicolás Maduro was replaced by his devotee, Delcy Rodríguez.
Mariam Memarsadeghi, a senior fellow at The Macdonald-Laurier Institute and founder and director of the Cyrus Forum for Iran’s Future, told Fox News Digital, “When it comes to helping unite opposition forces, the crown prince [Reza Pahlavi] has the most responsibility because he is leading. It is to everyone’s advantage for him to build true alliances and real cooperation.
“He can start through reconciliation with prominent figures who once were in collaboration with him before spoilers in his own ranks were propelled by regime manipulation and infiltration to turn on others. It will be tempting to think that, because he is popular, he does not need others. But there is much hard work ahead.”
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Reza Farnood, a researcher, writer and activist, told Fox News Digital, “In 48 years of activism and struggle, I have never experienced such broad unity and alignment. Even those who for years held firmly leftist views and were staunch opponents of the Shah and the Pahlavi family are now openly supporting the prince. Inside Iran, people are openly and courageously chanting his name.”
Yet others remain skeptical of Pahlavi.
“Unfortunately, the Iranian opposition is more divided than ever,” Alireza Nader, an Iran expert, said. “And I blame much of it on Reza Pahlavi and his team. Take the announcement of the formation of the new Kurdish Iranian coalition. Pahlavi attacked the coalition as soon as it was formed, labeling them as ‘separatists.’
“But then Pahlavi had to walk back his statement after he found out that President Trump had called Kurdish leaders, an important development.”
Nader added, “The Kurds are very organized and capable. And they are armed. Anyone who wants to free Iran has to work with them. The regime is a deeply entrenched system in Iran. It’s an ideology and belief system that will not be uprooted with air strikes. And the regime has been preparing for this moment for decades. The individual leaders may not matter as much as the system.”
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Yet while many voices claim Pahlavi should be the rightful successor to bring democracy to Iran, others point to the influential Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), the Iranian exile organization that has attracted supporters like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
The group was reportedly the first to highlight Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions and regularly posts videos on its social media showing its active units operating against the regime. A post on X dated March 3 shows attacks against regime targets.
“Resistance Units step up anti-regime activities nationwide,” it said, adding that there have been 30 operations in 15 cities, including Tehran, in recent days.
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Its Paris-based leader, Maryam Rajavi, says she supports a secular provisional government. Ali Safavi, an official with the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), told Fox News Digital, the organization “has consistently argued that unity must be built on principles — republicanism, popular sovereignty, human rights and the separation of religion and state — rather than on personalities or nostalgia for past systems.”
The NCRI is the umbrella organization for groups that fall under MEK.
Andrew Ghalili, the policy director for the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI), defended Pahlavi’s standing, saying, “There is no figure within the Islamic Republic who has legitimacy with the Iranian people or who would be a credible partner for the U.S.
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“As for opposition unity, the pro-democracy opposition is more united than it gets credit for. At the Munich Security Conference in 2025, a broad coalition came together around Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and four core principles for democratic transition. That includes monarchists, republicans, human rights advocates, ethnic minority representatives — all committed to a democratic, territorially intact Iran.”
Ghalili claimed, “When people say the opposition is ‘fractured,’ they’re usually lumping in groups like the MEK, which is universally reviled inside Iran and has no democratic credentials or aspirations, or separatist movements that don’t reflect what Iranians, including ethnic minorities, actually want. The real pro-democracy opposition is already uniting. The world, and international media, should recognize it.”
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“If the West truly wants stability and not a Venezuela-style managed authoritarian transition, it should not anoint personalities,” Bazargan warned. “It should push for a structured transition that guarantees free and fair elections within 12 months, with distributed authority and real safeguards against concentration of power.
“Iran does not need another supreme figure, even a secular one. It needs an accountable transitional framework, so every Iranian feels they have a stake in their future. Without that, fragmentation will continue, and fragmentation only helps the regime survive.”
Her warning was echoed by Memarsadeghi, who said, “The Iranian people will not trust in any process that leaves in power any vestige of the regime that massacred them.”
$4.2M US torpedo detonates under Iranian warship in historic ‘No Mercy’ strike
A multi-million-dollar U.S. Navy torpedo detonated underneath an Iranian warship in a nighttime submarine strike off Sri Lanka’s southern coast — an attack, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday in a Pentagon update, was the first of its kind since World War II.
The weapon, identified as a Mark 48 Advanced Capability (ADCAP) torpedo, underscored the scale of force used, and signaled to Tehran that “the gloves really are off,” according to a former U.S. submarine commander.
“The Mark 48 is one of the most lethal anti-ship weapons in the U.S. inventory,” Thomas Shugart, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told Fox News Digital.
The torpedo carries a 650-pound warhead and is designed not to strike a ship directly, Shugart said, but to detonate beneath it, creating a massive vapor bubble that breaks the vessel’s back and splits it in half.
“This torpedo detonated underneath the stern of the Iranian ship and lifted it up out of the water, and so it sank in a matter of minutes,” he added.
The torpedo costs approximately $4.2 million per unit, according to recent data, with Shugart likening the strike to rare submarine attacks in modern naval history.
In addition to World War II, he pointed to the 1982 Falklands War as one example of a submarine-launched torpedo sinking a major surface combatant.
“This was the second time ever that a nuclear-powered submarine has fired a torpedo and sunk a ship,” Shugart said.
“The only other time that happened was a British submarine called HMS Conqueror, which similarly sank an Argentine cruiser, the General Belgrano, during the Falklands War in 1982,” he added.
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The naval submarine operation, he said, would have involved increased surveillance, forward naval deployments and targeted actions designed to demonstrate U.S. maritime dominance.
“It definitely seems to me like a message that the gloves really are off,” Shugart added.
“An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth told reporters at the Wednesday briefing.
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Hesgeth described the strike as “a quiet death,” adding that it marked the first sinking of an enemy ship by torpedo since World War II.
“The U.S. Navy submarines are very highly mobile, very, very quiet, and our crews are extremely well-trained,” Shugart explained. “This was not a challenge for a U.S. Navy submarine to fire a torpedo.”
“To hunt down and sink an Iranian ship like that is not — that’s not a challenging task for a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine,” he said.
The targeted vessel, identified as the IRIS Dena, was the newest frigate in Iran’s naval fleet and was equipped with surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, torpedo launchers and other heavy weaponry.
According to Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath, the country’s coast guard received a distress call at 5:08 a.m. local time Wednesday from the Iranian vessel reporting an explosion.
EX-CENTCOM CHIEF DETAILS ‘EXQUISITE INTELLIGENCE’ BEHIND IRAN STRIKES, SAYS NEXT STEPS HINGE ON ‘MISSILE MATH’
“I’m not sure Iran has any operational submarines anymore, but if they were operational, their biggest submarines would be at least 20 or 30 years old,” Shugart said.
“They would be ex-Russian diesel-electric submarines, so they’re not nuclear-powered like the U.S. ones, with satellite communications and unlimited mobility.”
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“The U.S. submarines can operate at high speed for as long as they want with unlimited endurance, other than the food on board. They carry the most advanced weapons, the most advanced sensors.”
“This strike sent a message that if there are any Iranian warships left or any Iranian government-owned ships, they should expect no mercy,” he added.
Physicist lawmaker warns Iran could build ‘Hiroshima-style’ weapon, says US lacks uranium plan
A House Democrat with a background in physics is sounding the alarm over what he views as a lack of a plan to deal with Iran’s nuclear sites during the U.S. offensive campaign.
After a classified briefing Tuesday with top administration officials, Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., said lawmakers were not presented with a clear plan to secure or neutralize Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.
“We have heard that they never had a plan for that nuclear stockpile of enriched uranium — to destroy that, to seize it or to put it under international inspection,” he said.
The U.S. intervention was publicly justified by the Trump administration as a necessary step to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
U.S. forces have struck more than 1,700 targets across Iran, including ballistic missile launch sites, air defenses, naval assets and command centers. Core nuclear facilities, however, have not been among the primary targets.
“Until that happens, Iran will be very, very close to making — as many observers have pointed out in a nonclassified situation — Iran can use that material to make a handful of Hiroshima-style nuclear devices,” Foster told Fox News Digital. “Not the sort you can put on a missile, but the sort you can deliver by a number of other ways and are very hard to stop.”
Foster was referring to Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, material that, if weaponized, could be used to build a nuclear explosive device.
Experts note that building a compact warhead that fits on a ballistic missile is technically complex and requires advanced engineering. But a simpler, larger nuclear device — similar in basic concept to the bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 — would not need to be miniaturized to fit on a missile. Such a device could not be delivered by long-range rocket but could theoretically be transported by other means.
Foster argued that containing Iran’s nuclear materials, most of which are buried deep underground, would likely require U.S. forces to enter Iran.
Recent satellite imagery shows damage to support buildings and access points at Iran’s Natanz enrichment site, though the deepest underground infrastructure at key nuclear facilities has not been confirmed as a primary target in the current campaign.
U.S. and international officials previously have acknowledged that while strikes can damage enrichment infrastructure, stockpiled enriched uranium stored underground may remain intact and potentially retrievable unless physically secured or removed.
“You have to go in there with boots on the ground and grab a bunch of equipment,” Foster said. “You have to go underground into those facilities and lose a lot of soldiers’ lives doing that.
“They’re unwilling to do that, or they’ve decided not to or they’ve decided it’s impossible. In any case, they did not present to us any plan that would actually get the material under control.”
Without securing the nuclear material, he argued, military operations may push Iran closer to a nuclear weapon than diplomatic negotiations would have.
“The only positive thing about the ayatollah is that he had a fatwa against building nuclear weapons,” Foster said. “Who knows what the next generation of ayatollahs are going to feel? They’re going to be under a lot of pressure from the IRGC, which was not so much against having a nuclear weapon.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the joint U.S.-Israeli operations, had previously issued a fatwa, a religious edict, opposing the pursuit of nuclear weapons. Analysts have long debated how binding or durable that ruling was.
At a White House briefing Wednesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration believes Iran “wanted to build nuclear weapons to use against Americans and our allies,” framing the strikes as necessary to prevent Tehran from advancing its nuclear ambitions.
“The US military has more than enough munitions, ammo, and weapons stockpiles to achieve the goals of Operation Epic Fury laid out by President Trump — and beyond. Nevertheless, President Trump has always been intensely focused on strengthen our Armed Forces and he will continue to call on defense contractors to more speedily build American-made weapons, which are the best in the world,” she said in a follow up statement to Fox News Digital.
Missile suppression strategy faces ‘math problem’
Senior administration officials have emphasized that the current phase of the campaign is aimed at dismantling Iran’s ability to project force with missiles, drones and naval assets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has highlighted strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile systems, air defenses and naval capabilities, describing the effort as a push to degrade the conventional tools Tehran uses to threaten U.S. forces and regional allies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio similarly has said the United States is working to “systematically take apart” Iran’s missile program, so it could not “hide behind” it to develop a nuclear weapon.
While the broader justification for intervention centered on preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, the most immediate threat facing U.S. troops and partners has been Iran’s ongoing missile and drone launches. Administration officials contend Iran’s missile buildup was meant to create a deterrent buffer, shielding its broader strategic ambitions, including its nuclear program, from outside attack.
Lawmakers emerging from classified briefings said the campaign has become, in part, a question of sustainability.
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“We do not have an unlimited supply,” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said of U.S. and allied interceptor inventories. He warned the conflict could become a “math problem,” balancing launch volumes against finite air defense munitions and the ability to replenish them without weakening readiness in other theaters.
“At some point — and we’re probably already in this — this becomes a math problem,” Kelly added.
He said he pressed defense officials on how interceptor stocks are being replenished and whether diverting munitions to the Middle East could strain U.S. readiness elsewhere.
“How can we resupply air defense munitions? Where are they going to come from? How does that affect other theaters?” he said. “The math on this currently seems to be an issue.”
Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said he also sought clarity on interceptor inventories but did not receive detailed answers.
“I am very concerned about that,” Kim said. “I did not get any specificity today. … Something akin to ‘trust us’ is not good enough for me.”
Republicans, however, pushed back on the notion that interceptor supplies are strained.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said officials told lawmakers U.S. forces are “in great shape,” dismissing concerns about shortages.
US UNLEASHES OPERATION EPIC FURY, STRIKES 1,700 IRAN TARGETS IN 72 HOURS
Ehud Eilam, a former Israeli defense official and national security analyst, said that while a nuclear weapon remains the most serious long-term threat, missile and drone systems pose the most immediate danger if intelligence assessments conclude Iran is not on the verge of assembling a device.
“As long as it is estimated Iran cannot produce a nuclear weapon soon, then the focus moves to missiles and drones,” Eilam said, noting that ballistic missiles would ultimately be required to deliver any future nuclear warhead. Suppressing mobile launchers, crews and command networks can reduce Iran’s firing tempo, conserving interceptor supplies while degrading Tehran’s broader military capacity, he said.
The concern is not theoretical.
During the intense June 2025 Iran–Israel conflict, U.S. forces reportedly fired more than 150 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors, roughly a quarter of the global inventory, along with large numbers of ship-based Standard Missile interceptors to shield allies.
Analysts note that replenishing high-end air defense systems such as Patriot, THAAD and SM-3 interceptors could take more than a year under current production rates.
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The Pentagon also is balancing competing demands. The same missile defense systems used to protect U.S. bases and Gulf partners are being supplied to Ukraine to defend against Russian cruise missile attacks, creating what some analysts describe as a “zero-sum” competition for inventory between Europe and the Middle East.
“There is a limit to how many THAAD missiles can be used,” Eilam said. “These are not systems you can reproduce overnight.”