President Donald Trump has been warned he’s opening ‘Pandora’s Box’ over his strikes on Iran.
Russia chose mythic imagery to condemn the United States after Trump ordered ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a surprise bombardment of Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan nuclear sites.
Addressing an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, Moscow’s ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused Washington of putting ‘the safety and well-being of humanity as a whole’ at risk, per Reuters.
“Through their actions, the U.S. has opened a Pandora’s box; no one knows what new catastrophes and suffering it will bring,” he warned, calling the strikes ‘irresponsible, dangerous and provocative.’
The criticism came less than forty-eight hours after Trump revealed that B-2 bombers and submarine-launched Tomahawks had hammered the three underground facilities.
In a televised address, he hailed ‘massive precision strikes’ that ‘completely and totally obliterated’ Iran’s enrichment program and declared the operation a ‘spectacular military success.’
Pentagon briefings later confirmed the use of 30,000-pound GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs – technology never before employed in combat.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told the same Security Council session the bombing marked ‘a perilous turn,’ urging all parties to ‘return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear programme.’
But acting U.S. envoy Dorothy Shea insisted the attack was necessary to stop Tehran from acquiring a weapon, while Iran’s ambassador said Washington had ‘destroyed diplomacy.’
Iran’s military has since declared all U.S. forces in the region legitimate targets, and lawmakers in Tehran are threatening to shut the Strait of Hormuz.
Inside Russia’s fiery speech lurked a diplomatic overture: Nebenzia reminded delegates that Moscow had repeatedly offered to mediate and claimed the White House is ‘clearly not interested in diplomacy.’
He added that, unless escalation stops, the Middle East could soon face: “a large-scale conflict with unpredictable consequences … the entire world might end up on the verge of a nuclear disaster, Economic Times reports.
Back in Washington, the strikes have opened a different kind of box for the populist right.
On his ‘War Room’ podcast, hours before the bombs dropped, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon cryptically told listeners: “I’m just reporting what I’m hearing from pretty good sources. The party is on… another big weekend in this unfolding aspect of the Third World War.”
After the attack, Bannon blasted Trump for publicly thanking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguing it cut against the ‘America First’ brand and risked an open-ended commitment abroad, per Mail Online.
Trump himself struck a darker note while fielding questions on an airport tarmac in New Jersey about possible Iranian retaliation.
“You’re even in danger talking to me right now,” he told reporters, Daily Beast states. “Do you know that? … I should probably get out of here. But you guys are actually in danger.”
The remark drew fresh criticism that the president is leaning on fear rather than strategy as stakes rise.
Cultural voices are piling on.
Comedian Jon Stewart, reflecting on the week’s events, wondered aloud whether Trump might ultimately ‘burn our f*ing country down for the insurance money,’ accusing corporate media of paying ‘tribute to the king’ instead of holding him accountable.
Whether Nebenzia’s foreboding metaphor becomes reality now hinges on three fronts: Iran’s promised response, the U.S. domestic debate, and the willingness of world powers to revive diplomacy.
For the moment, however, Trump’s decision has fused regional hostilities, great-power rivalry, and America’s own political tumult into a single, unpredictable crisis, one that even its architect concedes could ‘go somewhere very big’ if Tehran refuses to stand down.