US: New Bunker Busters Could Destroy Iran’s Civilian Nuclear Program

Hopes to Assure Israel of Military Capability

US officials have reportedly shown Israel a demonstration of their new “bunker buster” bombs, with advanced burrowing capabilities, in hopes of convincing them that the US is capable of destroy Iran’s civilian nuclear program.

The new Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP) is said to weigh 30,000 pounds and is an upgrade from previous models. Officials say it would be capable of destroying the Fordow site, which is under a mountain.

The upgrade appears designed to convince Israel that the capability to destroy Iran’s program at any given time is going to remain in place, and hopefully get Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back off deadlines to start a war.

The Fordow facility operates legally under Iran’s safeguards agreement with the IAEA, as a site for the civilian enrichment of uranium. US officials have contended that the site’s difficulty to destroy proves Iran is up to no good, while Iran insists that if the US and Israel weren’t constantly threatening to destroy anything and everything in the country they’d never have gone to the trouble of making it inconvenient to bomb in the first place.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.