Tensions between Israel and Iran continue to escalate on the seventh day of the conflict, following Israeli air strikes and Iran’s retaliatory strikes, which led to over 240 casualties in Iran and over 24 in Israel.
Behind the escalating confrontation, Israeli officials are quietly pressuring Washington for deeper military involvement.
“The whole operation is premised on the fact that the US will join at some point,” an Israeli official told CNN, underscoring Tel Aviv’s dependence on American bunker-busting capabilities — a reference to powerful American bombs that can strike targets deep underground — to finish the job.
At the centre of this push is Iran’s Fordow fuel enrichment plant, a heavily fortified nuclear facility buried deep within a mountain near Qom, north-central Iran.
Following Israel’s recent wave of airstrikes targeting military and nuclear sites across Iran, analysts have warned that Tehran may now turn to the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant to convert its growing stockpile of enriched uranium into nuclear weapons.
While Israel is believed to have targeted the facility in recent days, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that Fordow remains undamaged. This has led observers to conclude that either Israel deliberately avoided causing damage to the site or it lacks the capability to do so.
Associate Professor Ozgur Korpe from National Defense University tells TRT World, “Israel cannot neutralise Fordow on its own under current technological conditions.”
He explains that facilities like Fordow are designed with “secrecy, geography, and special construction methods” in mind, including subterranean depth and reinforced materials that protect against air and ground assaults.
The facility’s depth and reinforced structure make it impervious to Israel’s conventional munitions, leaving the United States, with its unique bunker-busting capabilities, as the only actor capable of mounting a successful strike. “The kind of munitions needed to reach a site like Fordow exist only in the US arsenal,” Korpe adds.
The target beneath the mountain
Buried 80 to 100 metres beneath the mountains near Qom, the Fordow plant remains one of the most secure and strategically sensitive nuclear facilities in Iran.
It currently operates six cascades of IR-1 centrifuges and 10 cascades of more advanced IR-6 machines.
Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran was prohibited from enriching uranium at Fordow and agreed to convert the facility into a research centre. However, following the US withdrawal from the deal in 2018, Tehran resumed enrichment at the site, a move confirmed by the IAEA in 2019.
Fortified by deep underground tunnel systems and ringed with anti-aircraft defences, the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is one of Iran’s most heavily protected nuclear sites and is currently enriching uranium to 60 percent, which is claimed to be dangerously close to the 90 percent purity required for weapons-grade material.
Korpe tells TRT World that facilities like Fordow are purposefully “built at secure depth, reducing the risks of both direct strikes and radioactive fallout.”
While Israeli air strikes in June damaged or destroyed several nuclear-related sites across Iran, including facilities in Natanz, Esfahan, and Tehran, Fordow remains untouched.
Multiple intelligence sources confirm that Israel has attempted to target auxiliary buildings near the plant, but has not been able to penetrate the facility itself.
The challenge lies in Fordow’s depth and reinforced structure, which has proven impervious to Israeli munitions.
The 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) — the bunker-buster — is widely regarded as the only non-nuclear weapon potentially capable of breaching Iran’s heavily fortified Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.
The bomb only America can drop
The GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator is a US-developed, precision-guided “bunker buster” bomb designed to destroy deeply buried and reinforced targets such as underground nuclear facilities.
Weighing approximately 13,600 kg and measuring 6.2 metres in length, the bomb can penetrate up to 61 metres of earth or rock before detonation. It is considered the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the US arsenal capable of reaching targets shielded beneath substantial layers of protective material.
The weapon is exclusively operated by the US Air Force and can only be deployed by the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, an advanced long-range aircraft capable of global reach and radar evasion.
Israel, despite possessing various precision-guided munitions, does not have access to the GBU-57 or the B-2 bomber, limiting its ability to independently target deeply entrenched sites, like Fordow.
“To date, these weapons are publicly known to exist only in the United States,” says Körpe. “If Israel claims it can neutralise Fordow, it must either have secretly acquired this technology — for which there is no evidence — or it would need the US to carry out the strike on its behalf.”
While Israel has lighter bunker-buster bombs such as the BLU-109 and GBU-28, experts widely agree they are insufficient to destroy a site as hardened and deeply buried as Fordow.
According to repeated assessments by defence analysts, even a US-led operation would likely require multiple precision strikes to fully neutralise Fordow, which is protected by a network of reinforced tunnels and air defences.
This operational challenge has fueled growing calls within Israeli defence circles for direct US military involvement in any effort to eliminate the site, should diplomatic or covert means fail to halt Iran’s nuclear progress.
Israel’s strategic pressure campaign
Despite public signals that Israel may act unilaterally against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, officials widely interpret this rhetoric as part of a pressure campaign to draw the US into direct military involvement.
Israeli declarations of operational capability are seen as directed more at Washington than Tehran, aimed at signaling urgency and nudging the US towards action rather than merely deterring Iran.
Behind the scenes, the Israeli leadership appears to be leveraging every diplomatic and symbolic tool to accelerate American decision-making.
A recent billboard in Tel Aviv captured the sentiment: “Mr President, finish the job!” it read, an explicit appeal to US President Donald Trump to join the conflict.
While Trump has signed off on contingency plans, including the potential deployment of bunker-busting bombs, he has yet to authorise a full-scale intervention.
The growing frustration in Israeli circles stems from a realisation that Iran appears more resilient than initially expected. Its underground nuclear infrastructure remains intact despite Israeli efforts, and its continued uranium enrichment has defied sabotage attempts.
As a result, Israel now sees US involvement not as a preference, but as a necessity.
Military movements point to quiet preparations. The redeployment of US aircraft carriers, the presence of guided-missile destroyers, and the positioning of air force refueling aircraft — all suggest Washington is preparing for possible escalation, should the president decide to act.
