Israel kills 14 Iranian Nuclear scientists in targeted strikes

Israel has confirmed the targeted killing of at least 14 scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear programme—an extraordinary blow to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions that experts say may significantly delay, but not eliminate, its progress.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Israeli Ambassador to France Joshua Zarka said the deaths make it “almost impossible” for Iran to continue building nuclear weapons, especially following nearly two weeks of Israeli airstrikes and U.S. bunker-busting bombs.

“The fact that the whole group disappeared is basically throwing back the program by quite a number of years,” Zarka stated.

However, nuclear experts argue that while the strikes deal a blow, Iran’s scientific infrastructure remains resilient. Western governments stress that military action alone cannot dismantle Iran’s accumulated nuclear knowledge.

“Strikes cannot destroy the knowledge Iran has acquired over several decades, nor any regime ambition to deploy that knowledge to build a nuclear weapon,” said UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy during remarks to Parliament.

According to Zarka, the strikes eliminated 14 senior scientists—including physicists, chemists, and engineers—who were directly involved in weapon design and production.

Israel’s military said nine of the scientists were killed during the initial wave of airstrikes on June 13 and had “decades of accumulated experience” in nuclear weapons development.

Iranian state television later reported the death of another key figure, Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, who was killed in a second Israeli strike after surviving a previous attack that claimed the life of his 17-year-old son.

The killings appear to be intended not only to halt nuclear work but also to deter others from participating in future efforts.

“Blueprints will be around, and the next generation of Ph.D. students will figure it out,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, former U.S. diplomat and nuclear expert.

“Killing scientists and bombing facilities will set the program back further—but it can and will be reconstituted.”