Petty law
Sir — Humans tend to develop a strong emotional bond with their pets and this can lead to intense feelings, even conflicts, when such bonds are threatened. A cat parent in Switzerland recently moved court against her neighbour for feeding her cat, Leo, for over 10 months. The neighbour also made a cat flap for Leo to enter and leave as he pleased. She cared for Leo despite his parent writing to her forbidding her from doing so. Leo eventually stopped returning to his parent. Swiss law treats pets as property, and the neighbour has been slapped with a fine of nearly $5,000. While the law should take its course, one wonders what led the cat to search for greener pastures. Pets are not property; they are companions. More importantly, contented pets rarely abandon their humans.
Beas Nandy,
Pune
War escalates
Sir — In a dramatic escalation, the United States of America bombed three nuclear sites in Iran on Sunday morning (“Trump sends US back to war in West Asia”, June 23). It flies in the face of the two-week deadline that Donald Trump gave himself to decide whether to join Israel’s war against Iran. Satellite imagery shows trucks at two key sites the day before the American strikes, suggesting uranium could have been moved. Iran vowing retaliation has prompted the US to warn Tehran of harsher consequences. The US troops stationed in West Asia now face heightened threats. While Yemen has backed Iran, China and Russia remain noncommittal. Iran’s plan to close the crucial oil corridor, the Strait of Hormuz, will lead to a surge in global oil prices. The conflict marks the beginning of a wider war.
R.S. Narula,
Patiala
Sir — The US airstrike targeting nuclear sites in Iran — Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz — has raised the spectre of more bloodshed and violence in West Asia (“Greater fire”, June 23). Instead of reining in his ally, Benjamin Netanyahu, who started the war against Iran by launching unprovoked aerial strikes, Donald Trump has upped the ante by striking Iran. The US’s direct involvement will nudge Iran to hasten its nuclear programme.
M. Jeyaram,
Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu
Sir — Israel has almost removed most of Palestine from the face of the Earth and is working towards realising Donald Trump’s plan to convert Gaza into a global tourist spot. The US is the benefactor, protector and patron of Israel. Alleging that Iran is close to making a nuclear bomb, Israel started attacking Iran. It was only a matter of time before the US joined its ally.
This is a repetition of America’s reckless aggression against Iraq in 2003. During that time, too, the primary rationale for the US invasion centred around false claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The war extensively damaged Iraq and it is still struggling to achieve stability. In the same way, Libya and Syria have been reduced to rubble. The US has orchestrated these attacks to have the entire oil-and- gas-rich region under its control to plunder its resources.
A.G. Rajmohan,
Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh
Sir — In March, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of the US National Intelligence, stated in her testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee that there was no intelligence to suggest that Iran was building nuclear weapons. What happened in the past two and a half months that led Israel to attack Iran, citing that the latter posed a security threat? Donald Trump also reneged on his 14-day window to decide on joining Israel’s war and struck Iran in two days.
The Pentagon has claimed to have destroyed Iran’s three nuclear centres, Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan, with Operation Midnight Hammer. It seems that the period of turmoil, tension and confrontation in the Middle East is not going to end any time soon.
Jang Bahadur Singh,
Jamshedpur
Sir — Within hours of Pakistan proposing to nominate Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, the US president ordered the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites. Now things can escalate beyond control in West Asia, which is already on the edge. Iran will be more determined to retaliate by striking the US bases in the Middle East. Other superpowers may be drawn into the conflict.
Bal Govind,
Noida
Sir — Donald Trump does whatever suits his agenda. He would not have attacked Iran had Israel not been in jeopardy. Iran has already proved its mettle against Israeli airstrikes, and Israel is now badly affected. It can be said that the US was compelled to respond to the appeals made by Israel, its all-weather friend.
The US had earlier attacked Iraq under the pretext that the then Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, possessed deadly weapons. However, no such weapons of mass destruction were found in the aftermath of the US invasion. America is repeating the pattern with Iran. It must be noted that the regime of Ayatollah Khamenei is the most regressive and Iranian women have been aspiring for a change of regime.
Asim Bandopadhyay,
Howrah
Sir — Israel has been targeting Iran on two fronts — its nuclear and military sections. Israel is keen on turning its arch enemy into a militarily incompetent nation by killing its top commanders. By assassinating Iran’s top nuclear scientists, Israel is trying to rob it of the knowledge base required to build a nuclear weapon. The US entered Israel’s war using its bunker-buster bombs to demolish Iran’s nuclear sites. Is the war going to intensify, or will Iran surrender before the joint might of Israel and America? Will Russia and China remain impartial? The world will have to wait and watch.
Aranya Sanyal,
Siliguri
Sir — The US using B-2 stealth bombers to strike three underground nuclear sites in Iran, in clear breach of international law, appears to be in response to an SOS from a battered Benjamin Netanyahu, urging Donald Trump to intervene. Despite saying earlier that he would decide on whether to join Israel’s war in 14 days, Trump decided to strike Iran overnight. Trump seems to have been under pressure to attack to save his ally.
Trump has claimed the strikes a “success”. Iran has claimed that there was no radioactive leakage from the strikes. Given its stunning responses to Israel’s attacks, it is unlikely that Iran will take the US’s aggression lying down.
S.K. Choudhury,
Bengaluru