Satellite picture shows Fordow uranium enrichment facility after a US airstrike targeted the facility, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. [Planet Labs PBC via AP]
by William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)
BELIZE CITY, Mon. June 23, 2025
Belizeans are non-combatants and may consider themselves innocent bystanders in the ongoing conflict happening halfway around the world between Israel and Iran, but will inevitably feel the consequences in rising fuel prices, especially if the conflict escalates, now that the United States has bombed Iran.
Fuel prices went up by 5 cents to USD$3.22/gallon when Israeli missiles hit nuclear facilities in Iran, and US fuel prices are expected to rise another 5 cents, and $3.27/gallon after Trump’s intervention at the weekend. Belize imports its fuel from Texas, and even fuel imported from other sources will be affected by world prices. Diesel futures have increased by 10 cents per gallon. Belizean motorists saw pump prices rise when the Ukraine war began; those prices have not come down, even when the world price of oil fell.
The United States’ President, Donald Trump got elected on his campaign promises that he would keep the U.S. out of foreign wars, but the U.S. Air Force B-2 bomber attacks on nuclear power facilities in Iran were done without going to Congress for approval. There was no debate or explanation, and it went against public opinion in the U.S. Most Americans do not want another war such as the ill-fated Persian Gulf War in 1991, and most recent public opinion polls showed that most of the American public, including many of Trump’s MAGA supporters, opposed any military attack against Iran.
Much like President George Bush’s 2003 attack on Iraq in search of “Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)”, the “Operation Midnight Hammer” ordered by President Trump on June 21, struck at facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, which Trump later claimed were “completely and totally obliterated”. Not necessarily so, as the bomb-damage assessment will take time to complete, cautioned General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “All three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” according to the initial assessment.
Seven B-2 bombers, each carrying 2 of the U.S.’ largest bunker-buster bombs – the GBU-57, flew across the Atlantic from Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri to Iran and back, a 37-hour round trip. They dropped 14 of these monster bombs on uranium-enrichment facilities buried almost a kilometer underground at Natanz and Fordow, which Trump said was the “primary” target. The bombers had to refuel in flight to do this, and had jet fighter escorts to and from the target. The entire operation involved more than 125 aircraft. U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth boasted that the scope and scale of the operation would “take the breath away” from most observers. Hegeseth said “the United States does not seek war. But let me be clear, we will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners or our interests are threatened,” adding that Iran has “every opportunity” to negotiate peace.
U.S. submarines fired dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles at Isfahan, a complex of facilities where Iran uses gas centrifuges to enrich uranium metal. The International Atomic Agency (IAEA) estimates that Iran had 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, concentrated to 60 percent purity, which could be enriched to weapons-grade purity, enough for 10 bombs.
Iran countered with its “Blessings of Victory” missile operation, attacking the U.S. Air Force base at Al Udeid just across the Persian Gulf in Qatar. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insists Iran will not surrender. “We have not violated anyone’s rights, nor will we ever accept anyone’s violation; this is the logic of the Iranian nation,” Khamenei posted on social media. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian added, “We neither initiated the war nor are seeking it”, on the social platform X: “But we will not leave invasion of the great Iran without answer.”
Trump reported that “NO Americans were harmed, and hardly any damage was done,” as he down-played the Iranian counterattack as a “very weak response”, saying that America “expected” and “very effectively countered” the attack. He said 14 missiles were fired of which 13 were shot down, and one was ignored as it was not headed in a threatening direction.
The president is known for his double-speak, and Qatar authorities say Iran fired 19 missiles at Al Udeid, of which only one hit with no casualties. Major General Shayeq Al Hajri said Iran fired 7 missiles, all of which were intercepted over the Persian Gulf by Qatari air defenses. He said 12 more missiles were then fired, of which 11 were intercepted over land, but one hit the US base.