Last night Isreal launched strikes across Iran targeting nuclear sites, nuclear scientists and military leaders. Iranian news agencies reported six nuclear scientists were killed in the strikes and at least one nuclear site was hit. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for civilian purposes but many countries – including the global nuclear watchdog IAEA – are not convinced. This week, the IAEA formally declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligation for the first time in 20 years. Looking across the world, the US and Russia have the largest nuclear warhead stockpiles with about 4,000 warheads each and they are estimated to gradually shrink their stockpiles. Various other countries including China, India, Pakistan and North Korea are believed to be growing their nuclear arsenal.
Source: Federation of American Scientists, 2024.