The writer is director of the Iranian History Initiative at LSE and author of ‘Nixon, Kissinger and the Shah: the United States and Iran in the Cold War’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unilateral military strike on Iran is predicated on the idea that either the Islamic Republic can be forced to give up its nuclear programme, or it can be replaced with a regime that will comply with the demands of Israel and the US to abandon its nuclear aspirations.
The reality is that no Iranian regime — past, present or future — will surrender Iran’s nuclear ambitions. If anything, by attacking Iran’s nuclear sites while Iran was negotiating with the US, Israel has reinforced the incentive for the Islamic republic to rush to acquire a nuclear deterrent.