The Smiting Hand of God

That's the destructive hand of the Almighty that the Islamic Republic of Iran contends is raised on their behalf. For Allah has decreed that His favoured regime and his newly-chosen people, the Persian Empire, must master the secret formulae to engineer and perfect ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. This, in any event, is what the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamanei trumpets to the world at large.

But what if God prefers a different alliance altogether? One that equally proudly points to ancient scripture attesting that Israel is God's chosen? Proof of which is their peculiar ability to withstand onslaughts that such a small nation beset with violence from large and plentiful neighbours has ably proven it is capable of fending off? In the process, acquiring its own nuclear capability.

The world shudders at the prospect of balefully belligerent Iran, which oppresses its own and threatens others, perfecting ownership of nuclear proficiency. So concerned about the potential that rumours have been rife in the corridors of diplomacy and the military that while diplomacy will continue to wedge itself into the picture, the might of thunderous attacks may be employed.

But what if airborne missiles and bunker-busting bombs are seen to be expressive of an earlier time and not necessarily representative of newer methods of interruption and cessation? Attacks by stealth and at arm's length which have gradually diminished the threat by forestalling its dire imminence? In reflection of technological advances, a program-destructive worm like Stuxnet.

And the clever, carefully covert placement of newer-generation explosives, detonated at a distance? By some mysterious chance, Iran's atomic scientists and ballistic experts have been expiring before their biological due date. Targeted for assassination, abduction, de-briefing. And a number of explosions at delicate installations have taken place, one last month destroying the lives of 30 scientists and members of the Republican Guard.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, visits the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility south of the capital, Tehran, Iran. Source: AP

Iran strenuously denies any such occurrence, as it usually does, explaining that the huge blast a month ago that killed a top ballistics missile expert was simply the result of an accident in the testing of a system meant to target Israel for annihilation. A second explosion yesterday has the informed speculating that Tehran's military along with its sensitive atomic sites might just be under attack. Not from the skies, through Israeli warplanes overflying Saudi Arabia, but in a most arcane manner.

Satellites have picked up confirmation of the blast that struck the city of Isfahan's uranium enrichment facility. Something was certainly destroyed; the huge blast and billowing smoke was responsible for alarming Iranians living in the vicinity who corroborate something truly unusual had occurred, shattering their windows.

Despite the regime's denials of an Isfahan-area nuclear-site blast, caused instead by a military exercise carried out in the area, according to the city's governor, Tehran insists no explosion had taken place whatever. Commenting archly on the issue, Israel's Intelligence Minister, Dan Meridor stated: "There are countries who impose economic sanctions and there are countries who act in other ways in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat."

Clearly, Israel has more to lose with Iran's success in mastering nuclear-weaponization than any other concerned nations of the world. And, as Major-General Giora Eiland, Israel's former national security director claimed, the blast at Isfahan was no accident.

"There aren't many coincidences, and when there are so many events there is probably some sort of guiding hand, though perhaps it's the hand of God."