DC Transparency (US Foreign Policy and Lobbying) vehemently protests the June 21, 2025, military attack of United States against the Iranian nuclear stations, so-called Operation Midnight Hammer, which involved Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites. Such aggressive moves threaten to upset the nuclear order in the world, destabilizing non-proliferation efforts and to take regional and international tensions to dangerous levels.
Operation Midnight Hammer: Scale and Execution
Seven B-2-stealth bombers launched a total of fourteen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs that would be supported by Tomahawk missiles launched by submarines. The attacks were celebrated by U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump, as a beautiful military outbreak signified going to zilch nuclear capacities of the Iranian fighters. Nevertheless, outside experts and satellite photographs show the harm did not set Iran back a year or more in its nuclear program.
General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff termed the mission as the biggest B-2 stealth bomber operation since 2001 and it involved more than 125 planes. However, although the U.S. was optimistic the first time, the nuclear command in Iran claims that the nuclear program fundamentals are not yet destroyed and its operatives were moved out before the attacks.
Threats to Non-Proliferation and International Norms
The parliament in Tehran naturally reacted by passing a motion to discontinue cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and look at the possibility of quitting the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that has held key to nuclear stability in the international arena since the last decades. The IAEA cautioned that any destruction of monitoring infrastructure would lead to a “cat-and-mouse” game, resulting in a huge reduction in transparency of the inspections.
The strikes were condemned by UN experts as acts against the UN Charter in not allowing aggression causing an alert that such military interventions are creating dangerous precedents. It is possible that other countries will be encouraged to attack nuclear plants in a preemptive way, facing a potential chain of local arms wars and increases of tensions on a global scale.
Regional Fallout and Calls for Restraint
Iran responded by launching a missile attack on a U.S air base in Qatar which failed to cause any casualty but was used to highlight the instabilities of the situation. Saudi Arabia and Russia admonished the move of the U.S. as being too provocative. The UN Secretary General Ant nio Guterres urged patience and re-evaluated diplomacy that would prevent escalation of violence.
The tenuous truce in the area has been kept on a thin line as both the sides have threatened to increase the tension even more. There are also issues of the environment, where the exploded enrichment plants pose dangers of radioactive contamination and problems of the long-run environmental damages, which IAEA warns about.
Legal and Strategic Implications
Legal authorities claim that the strikes contravene the NPT as well as the international law that regulates force usage. The Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi criticized the attacks as violation of sovereignty and international protocols. On the contrary, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the operation hailing it as a historic action that “will alter history.”
The U.S. officials justified the mission on the premises that the operation was necessary to stop Iranian nuclear desires and defending allies in the region. Secretary of defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance asserted that the strikes “obliterated” the capability of Iran having any weapons of mass destruction. Intelligence is however indicating that there is a time limit to that and Iran can further speed up the clandestine nuclear program posing a greater threat to proliferation.
Urgent Call for International Action
DC Transparency urges the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to immediately request restraint by all sides to prevent further escalation of military conflict, enforce and strengthen international legal norms against attacks on nuclear facilities, to achieve new diplomatic dialogue to restore monitoring, verification and
In order to solve nuclear issues, military solutions are not a substitute for diplomacy. Although the strikes can provide some tactical gains, they are potentially strategic losses as they push the Iranian nuclear program towards becoming underground and losing the credibility of the international institutions.
DC Transparency supports the world civil society, environmental organisations, and legal professionals expressing their concerns that this is a moment of truth when the international nuclear order is in jeopardy. The decisions taken in the present will act as the indicator of the world to gain more security or to drift towards instability.
