Washington has thrown down a chilling gauntlet tonight, as senior Pentagon planners briefed allies on a campaign they claim could deliver “complete control of Iran’s airspace in under a week” using waves of stealth jets and stocks of so‑called “unlimited” gravity bombs.

Behind closed doors at a secure NATO facility, U.S. officers showcased footage of B‑2 bombers and F‑35s practicing low‑visibility strikes with precision‑guided bunker‑busting bombs, designed to tear open hardened shelters, radar nests and missile batteries. One official boasted that the U.S. could “re‑rack and reload faster than Iran can repair,” turning its air‑defense grid into a “smoking jigsaw puzzle.”

The message was unmistakable: America believes it can systematically peel away Iran’s radars, SAM sites and airbases until the Islamic Republic is flying blind. Briefing slides, leaked to the press, depict concentric “no‑fly rings” tightening over Tehran, Qom and key IRGC hubs, with U.S. jets operating almost uncontested above 30,000 feet.

Tehran has blasted the presentation as “nuclear‑era intimidation with conventional paint,” accusing Washington of psychological warfare and warning that any large‑scale air assault would trigger massive missile and drone retaliation across the Gulf, Israel and beyond.

European diplomats, rattled by the swaggering tone, worry that talk of “air supremacy in seven days” could box both sides into a corner—tempting Washington to prove its power, and pushing Iran to gamble everything on a desperate, all‑out response.