If time flows at an even pace, then history does not. Joe Biden may still be new in the job, but he finds himself at the centre of a war between Israel and Iran in everything but name. After a comparative lull, events are not so much accelerating as whirling around the president, drawing him inexorably in.
Last night, Iranian officials reported that the Natanz uranium enrichment plant – a lynchpin of its nuclear programme – had been the victim of what they described as ‘nuclear terrorism’. According to US officials quoted in the New York Times, an explosion destroyed the independent power system that supplied the centrifuges for enriching uranium. They estimate it could take at least nine months to resume uranium enrichment there, which is a key path to a potential nuclear bomb.
The Iranians first reported a power failure. Now they say it’s Israel. The Israelis, for their part, say nothing.
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