NEW YORK, March 29. /TASS/. The US-Israeli military operation against Iran could lead to another round of the nuclear arms race, Bloomberg reports.
According to the media outlet, governments "from the North Atlantic to the West Pacific" are debating whether they, too, should seek nuclear weapons. In addition, the countries that have long been satisfied to sit under the US nuclear umbrella, such as Germany and Poland, have "welcomed French overtures about extending the country’s own strategic deterrent across the continent."
"The US, the only country to use a nuclear weapon against a civilian population, is assessing a return to atomic bomb tests," Bloomberg adds.
"The possible acquisition of such weapons of mass destruction is openly discussed, even in countries that have pledged never to possess them," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said. "But more nuclear weapons in more countries will not make the world more secure — on the contrary. It is more important than ever to uphold the non-proliferation norms that have served the world so well for the past half century," he added.
The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.