
Portraits of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as demonstrators protest US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, in downtown Tehran on June 22.
Photographer: Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images
A Weakened Iran Can Still Inflict Pain on the US — and the World
When the dust settled on Iran’s nuclear sites on Sunday after a US bombing raid that President Donald Trump said had “totally obliterated” its atomic program, one thing was still missing: its highly enriched uranium, which international authorities haven't seen for more than a week.
While the US attacks have set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions and dealt its clerical regime a humiliating blow, the program hasn’t been completely destroyed. The US attack may ultimately lead Tehran to end international monitoring of its nuclear program and consider going ahead to develop a bomb. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the top ranks of his military and government winnowed by days of Israeli attacks, hasn’t been seen in public in 11 days but remains in control. Even as diplomatic allies Russia and China have stayed on the sidelines and its network of armed proxies in the region remains weakened, Tehran still has ways to inflict pain on the US as it plans its retaliation.