Sopuruchi Onwuka

As world’s major airlines avoid direct flights to the Middle East, Israel is working out arrangements that would enable foreigners relocating to Europe and America to flee as the world expects major conflict escalation as President Donald Trump of the United States fulfils his promise of hitting recalcitrant Iran.

The development, Oracle reports, forms part of the war plan ahead of the Saturday bombing of Iran’s underground nuclear facility with an American B-2 Stealth fighter.

US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, had urged US citizens in Israel to complete a crisis intake form that would help them seek a way back to America. H urged US citizens in the embattled country to take every opportunity to leave, warning that the prevailing challenges are great with airspace mostly closed.

Under the evacuation arrangement, Israeli carrier El Al would be offering 50 seats on flights departing from Tel Aviv to eight destinations including New York and Los Angeles to those looking to flee the region. 

President Donald Trump departed his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey on Saturday evening and headed back to The White House where he had a scheduled meeting with his national security team.

The US strikes on Iran came shortly after a call between Prime Minister Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu objected to the two weeks space Trump offered Iran to give up its nuclear ambition in exchange for peace.

The US is the only country in the world with the bunker-busting bombs capable of hitting the nuclear facility, which is buried deep into a mountain. 

Local Israeli sources told media outlets that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) were already mapping out possible strike on the Iran’s fortified nuclear facility even though the airspace to target is very narrow to Israeli fighters. It is not clear how Israel planned to hit the facility without US assistance.  US Air Force sources had revealed that the bomb capable of hitting the facility is configured and programmed to the B-2 spirit stealth bomber.

Netanyahu has frequently said the goal of the attacks on Iran was to eliminate its missile and nuclear program, which he described as an existential threat to Israel.

On Saturday, six of those bombers left from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The bombers are said to have been refueled, which means they could have launched without full tanks due to the extraordinarily heavy bunker-buster bombs.

The Fordo nuclear enrichment facility, located 60 miles southwest of Tehran, is some 260 feet under rock and soil, and protected by Iranian and Russian surface-to-air missile systems most of which are believed to have been weakened by Israeli attacks.

Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60% – a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear weapons program but has never acknowledged it.

Military engagement by the US is feared to escalate the tense situation in the Middle East, prompting the US government to take the preemptive measures to evacuating its citizens in the region to safety.  

Iran has threatened that the attack on its Fordo facility would set of everlasting consequences, but analysts also warn that Iran might still be holding the short end of the stick.

Trump has already warned that there would be additional strikes if Tehran retaliated against U.S. forces. “There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran,” he said.

Following a clue from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which accused Iran of the breaching its commitments to open inspection of activities at its nuclear facilities, the Director of the US National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, clarified that Iran could produce nukes ‘within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly.’

Oracle reports that the prevailing wars in the Middle East spiraled out of control from the October 7, 2023 attack by Iran sponsored Hamas terror group which invaded Israel, killed 1200 men, women, babies and elderly before raping and taking some significant 250 hostages into Gaza.

Hamas still holds Israeli hostages as the war rages, although it is believed that the terrorist group has murdered remaining innocent hostages as recent military campaigns in search of the hostages yielded recovery of dead bodies of the hostage victims.

Until Israel attacked Iran on June 13 in an operation it tagged Rising Lion, Tehran continues to sponsor multiple attacks on Israel from Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

The Irsaeli anger in response to the October 7 Hamas attack has claimed over 55,000 lives in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon and now Iran. Israel also continues to suffer more losses in the multiple wars.

Most Iranians are not in support of the war mongering regime of Ayotallah Khameini; and according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group, some 722 people, including 285 civilians, have been killed and more than 2,500 wounded in Iran since June 13.

Iran has retaliated by firing more than 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. The strikes killed at least 24 people.