New Delhi, June 19 -- US President Donald Trump has conveyed to defence officials that any military strike on Iran's deeply buried uranium enrichment facility at Fordow would only make sense if the so-called "bunker buster" bomb-the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP)-could be guaranteed to destroy the target.

The GBU-57, a colossal 13.6-tonne (30,000-pound) bomb, is designed to penetrate hardened underground facilities, and Pentagon experts have assured Trump that dropping these bombs would effectively eliminate Fordow.

However, Trump remains unconvinced and has delayed authorising any strikes on Iran, instead waiting to see if the threat of US military involvement might bring Iran back to the negotiating table.

The debate over t...