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Israel-Iran conflict Q&A with Dominic Waghorn and Michael Clarke: Is Iran close to a nuclear bomb? Will US get involved?

International affairs editor Dominic Waghorn and military analyst Professor Michael Clarke have answered your questions on the Israel-Iran conflict. Watch back in the stream below.

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International affairs editor Dominic Waghorn and military analyst Professor Michael Clarke have answered your questions on the Israel-Iran conflict. 

More than 2,000 of you sent questions in - thank you.

You can watch the discussion back in the stream at the top of the page - and scroll down to read their answers. 

And for our full coverage of the conflict, head to our live page...

'Israel needs to justify killings at Gaza distribution sites'

Bernard:

What is happening in Gaza while the Israel-Iran conflict is ongoing?

The final question is about Gaza.

Unfortunately, it's been more of the same there, Michael Clarke says, with distribution efforts a "mess".

"It looks as if the IDF now are actively involved in the allegations of shooting, because these crowds get out of control very quickly, and the Israeli government is now funding gangs, it seems - militias - to operate against Hamas, which is adding to the confusion," Clarke adds.

"So you've got gangs, you've got Hamas and the IDF all periodically firing on desperate people, who are not very disciplined because they're grabbing food wherever they can.

"They're not necessarily moving to these aid distribution spots in a very careful way. Whenever they see a truck that they think they can hijack, ordinary people just descend on it and hijack the truck."

Watch: 50 killed in Gaza waiting for aid

It's quite horrendous, Dominic Waghorn says.

"What's happening, particularly at this roundabout where we've just seen terrible numbers of people being killed almost on a daily basis, it seems to happen in the kind of the early hours of the day," he adds.

Israel needs to "justify" the situation, as it's not just "crowd control", he says.

"Something more sinister seems to be happening to kill that number of people and injure so many others," he continues.

"And the Israelis have not explained why."

It's gone "about as badly as we could have imagined it would go", Clarke adds. 

British role in Israel-Iran fighting likely to mirror Russia and China

JoeKenn :

Is there any chance of Britain helping Israel?

Britain is likely to follow the roles China and Russia are also playing in the Israel-Iran conflict - namely by likely staying out.

Our experts say that it's likely Sir Keir Starmer's government won't wade into the Middle East in defence of Israel.

However, Dominic Waghorn points out that there are some roles Britain could hypothetically play.

One possible way Britain could help Israel is by plugging the gaps in its dwindling arsenal.

This could be in supplying air defence interceptors - with reports emerging today that Israel was burning through its supplies of Arrow interceptors.

But Waghorn says: "I think Britain's got to think very carefully about this. 

"We have sent various RAF assets to the region and there's a possibility that they get involved in trying to protect Israel from more missile attacks."

Michael Clarke points out that defence secretary John Healey suggested this at a defence conference this week.

"I thought it was rather curious," he says.

But both described any British involvement as "politically hard to imagine".

Waghorn goes on: "I think there's a real queasiness about that in the British government, and there's a lot of concern, I think, amongst Labour MPs as to what Israel's done, why it's done it so pre-emptively and has it provided any evidence.

"I think Britain is like what we're saying about China and Russia and everyone else - stay out of it."

Watch: PM tells Beth Rigby he's 'worried' about escalation

Iran-Israel conflict won't impact Russian drone stocks

Gilbert in Birmingham:

Will the conflict mean there is less support and equipment from Iran to Russia used to fight Ukraine?

There will not be a big impact on Russian drone stocks, says military analyst Michael Clarke.

The Russians are now producing their own supplies, he explains.

"They were producing 300 a month at the beginning of the year. They're ramping up to 3,000 a month and they're aiming for 10,000 a month next year."

"There won't be a big effect on Iranian supplies to Russia because there has already more or less been licensed production in Russia for the things that they got from Iran originally."

How much have Israeli spies infiltrated Iran?

Sophie:

How far has Mossad infiltrated the Iranian regime?

We've seen cars blowing up and assassinations already, Michael Clarke says.

They work in teams of around five to 10, he adds, and they killed 20 commanders on the first night of this conflict.

Dominic Waghorn says there's a joke doing the rounds that goes: have you heard the Iranians have hit Mossad HQ? Nobody died (because all the agents are in Iraq).

Another thing to consider, Waghorn adds, is a lot of people in Israel came from Iran.

"So they've taught their children Farsi, so most Mossad agents have this whole reservoir of Israelis speaking Farsi," he says.

"Israelis are very effective at passing themselves off as Iranians because they speak the language."

Iran 'about a year' from key part of nuclear bomb - but don't worry

JacksonjacobLFC:

How close is Iran to getting a nuclear weapon really?

Iran isn't a million miles away from building a nuclear bomb, our experts say - but you shouldn't worry.

As a "threshold state", Michael Clarke says, Iran has essentially "got the stuff" - ie, uranium - and is capable of enriching it to the necessary levels needed for bombs.

Clarke says Iran would have enough raw materials for a "Hiroshima style explosion".

However, one thing standing in the way is a working trigger mechanism.

"That's hard," Clarke explains.

He adds: "They're probably about a year away from a triggering mechanism that would work."

Dominic Waghorn and Clarke explain that even if a nuclear bomb is built, it's still very difficult to use.

"The fact is, most nuclear weapons are more likely not to go off than to go off," Clarke says.

Waghorn adds one key weakness of a nuclear bomb is the trigger mechanism, saying: "It's so delicate and so difficult."

Clarke adds: "A nuclear explosion is so difficult to organise to arrange, so difficult to trigger that we shouldn't worry too much about that."

Watch Waghorn explain more about the Israeli strikes on Tehran's nuclear infrastructure below:

'Trump's deeply conflicted - but my money's on him intervening'

Joe Evans:

How high are the chances of the US getting involved? If the US does strike Iran - what happens next?

Donald Trump appears to be "deeply conflicted", says international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn.

"He's gone from telling the Israelis not to get involved, not to strike, a few months ago and the Israelis looked like they'd been put back in their box.

"Then the Israelis deciding to do it anyway and Donald Trump sort of said: 'Well, actually, I knew about it and it's not that bad an idea'. 

"And now he's saying that the Iranians have to surrender unconditionally.

"The impression you get is that he's being led by the nose by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu."

The Israeli leader will be telling the US president it is his moment, encouraging him to use American bunker busting bombs to finish off Iran's nuclear programme, says Waghorn.

"What the Israelis are saying to the Americans is: 'Look, we've done most of the work, but if you want to take the glory at the end of this, all you have to do is authorise that mission by a B-2 bomber.'"

On the other hand, the MAGA wing of the Republican Party don't want to be sucked into conflicts in the Middle East.

"I think if you have to put money on it, you'd expect him to do something."

Waghorn continues: "Simply because it will allow him to claim glory and also, I think he'll have planners around him saying 'you've got to reassert America's deterrence'."

And whatever he does, Trump knows Republicans will fall in line behind him.

How would Iran respond?

Iran has threatened to "set the Gulf afire" by firing missiles at American and allied interests and bases in the region, says Waghorn.

"It's a risk for all of us because a fifth of the world's oil comes through the Persian Gulf. If they close the Strait of Hormuz or turn it into a war zone, that's obviously going to have a dramatic impact fairly quickly on the global economy."

But Trump worries the Iranians because he's "a totally unpredictable wildcard", Waghorn says.

"I suspect they will try and retaliate in a way that doesn't draw America fully back in, but it's hard to see how you do that."

Their preference would be to draw the US into a diplomatic game, but they can't do that while the Israelis are still bombing.

Michael Clarke adds that damage to the Iranian regime's nuclear programme wouldn't undermine the regime itself, but dismantling the Iranian Revolutionary Guards would.

As for the people of Iran, they will be motivated to see the regime end, says Waghorn.

"If you're an Iranian, you've seen your regime brutally repress an uprising and do terrible things to largely your daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, either on the streets of Iran's cities or its jails.

"Then you've seen it spend billions on a defensive strategy that on both those accounts, far away and also back at home, has now gone up in smoke. So there is nothing to make you believe in this regime."

The ayatollah's might be toppled, but the military is too embedded and Iranians don't want to see a violent uprising, adds Waghorn.

This isn't going to turn into WWIII - here's why

Tony:

Could this escalate into World War Three?

Is this threatening to turn into a third world war?

No, is the short answer from Michael Clarke.

It's certainly not a stupid question, and it's something Dominic Waghorn says he's asked a lot as well.

But Clarke says a world war would depend on "escalation on the basis of a sort of common ideological challenge around the world".

"And that's not what this is," he says.

"This is a regional problem, which could become very nasty, but, at worst, it will be a regional war in which the great powers dabble and perhaps dabble more than they should.

"But that's the worst, in my view, that it could be."

Both the world wars were "actually a series of smaller wars that became universal for other reasons", he adds.

"This would be a nasty war, but I don't see any transmission mechanism that would make this universal," Clarke explains.

"It wouldn't unite an underlying fault line in world politics between one group of big powers and another group of big powers."

We're live - watch at the top of the page

Michael Clarke is here and ready to start answering your questions.

Lots of you have been in touch, and we will aim to get through as many of your questions as we can, with our international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn putting them to him.

We'll be sharing updates here, and you can watch along in the live stream at the top of this page.

You can still submit your questions

There's still time to ask Michael Clarke a question before his latest Q&A at 12pm.

Just put it in the box at the top of this page.