The New Statesman.

The world is entering a new, far more dangerous era.

That's what my guest on today's episode, Ankit Panda, argues in his latest book,

The New Nuclear Age, at the precipice of Armageddon.

I'm Katie Stallard, and this is the New Statesman podcast.

Donald Trump has hailed the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities as a spectacular

success, which obliterated their targets. But a leaked report from the U.S. intelligence

community suggests much of Iran's capability remains intact and that the country could

resume nuclear development within months. Meanwhile, Russia's assault on Ukraine continues, with Putin

periodically threatening the use of nuclear weapons. Separately, the British government has announced

plans to purchase five new military aircraft capable of delivering nuclear bombs.

So how alarmed should we be?

And could this conflict actually bring us closer to a nuclear-armed Iran?

Ankit Panda is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and joins me now.

Let's start with the news. As we're recording this, we have heard a preliminary report from

defence intelligence sources that estimate that the United States

strikes on Iran in fact only set the country's nuclear program back a few months.

That's being disputed by the administration.

Donald Trump obviously says it's been completely and totally obliterated.

What do you make of that?

How does that track with the information that

you're seeing coming out? We talk about this phrase nuclear ambitions a lot. You know, you'll see

...