Throughout the day on Friday, Israel carried out wave upon wave of strikes on nuclear facilities and missile bases in Iran. The Natanz uranium enrichment site and the nuclear facility in Isfahan have been hit and top military leaders have been assassinated - as have nuclear scientists.

Shapiro served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East until January—charged with, among other things, considering scenarios in which tensions between Israel and Iran escalated into all-out war and preparing U.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during the 36th anniversary of the death of the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, at Khomeini's shrine in southern Tehran,