300. Peace in the Middle East will only be achieved if Iran becomes a nuclear power 

Today, I read a report predicting that detonating a single nuclear weapon over New York could result in approximately 583,160 deaths. Almost six lakhs of innocents will die in seconds! It's very frightening news. 

My mind flashed images of a destroyed Central Park, Times Square, Broadway, and SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, along with scenes of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the 208-year-old New York State Library in flames. These are lovely places that hold wonderful memories in the hearts of millions of people around the world.

But so was Beirut, which earned the nickname “Paris of the Middle East” for its stunning French-influenced architecture, cosmopolitan lifestyle, and booming cultural scene, and Tehran, which was called “the city of 72 nations,” reflecting its role as a melting pot of Iranian culture.

At present, there are 9 countries in the world that possess nuclear weapons. They are: China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the UK, and the USA.  

India’s Pokhran-II (Operation Shakti) happened on May 11 & 13, 1998, and immediately after two weeks, Pakistan's first nuclear tests, codenamed Chagai-I, were conducted on May 28, 1998. 

If we are willing to believe the rumors widely circulated in the newspapers in 1998, the real owner of the nuclear weapons kept in Pakistan is, in fact, the USA, which hurriedly transferred them under US President Bill Clinton.

Kirana Hills in Pakistan, believed to store nuclear weapons, was reportedly struck on May 10, 2025, during Operation Sindoor. Immediately afterward, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio forced Pakistan to ask its DGMO to call the Indian DGMO to request a halt to hostilities. The timing seems too deliberate to be a coincidence.

According to the 2026 Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor, the 9 states have roughly 12,187 nuclear warheads, with over 9,600 in active military stockpiles. Russia, with 5459, tops the list, followed by the USA with 5277. Israel has 90, whereas Pakistan has 170 warheads.

Six nations, Italy, Türkiye, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belarus, host nuclear weapons. Twenty-eight other countries also endorse the possession and use of nuclear weapons by allowing the potential use of nuclear weapons on their behalf as part of defense alliances, including NATO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

Once, a single nuclear warhead could kill hundreds of thousands of people, leaving lasting, devastating humanitarian and environmental consequences; think what 12,187 would do. Remember that modern nuclear weapons are many times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. 

Now, Israel and the USA are determined that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. WHY?

Once major terrorist states such as Pakistan and the new entrant to that club, Israel, are allowed to possess nuclear weapons, what moral authority does any country in the world have to deny this right to Iran? 

Certainly not Israel, which has been causing havoc, killing over a hundred thousand innocent people in Gaza and Lebanon, and displacing five million in the past year and a half. This has led to the greatest tragedy since Hitler’s final solution. Israel’s IDF is functioning as a sharpshooter rather than a defense force.

With so many countries either possessing or endorsing the use of nuclear warheads, there is no point in discussing how the world is in danger or entertaining any such utopian thoughts. The truth remains that the world is at the brink of destruction, not by the proverbial Kayamat ke din, but by these warheads. So let us be practical.

A lasting peace in the Middle East will be achieved only if Iran counterbalances Israel with an equal number of nuclear warheads. I feel that deciding to drop a bomb would not be as easy as it was on August 9, 1945.

These days, I’m truly upset watching images from Kyiv and Lebanon. It has shaken my belief in humanity.