Should the U.S. decide to send in military forces to secure Iran's uranium stockpile, it would be a complex, risky and lengthy operation, fraught with radiation and chemical dangers, according to experts and former government officials.

U.S. President Donald Trump has offered shifting reasons for the war in Iran but has consistently said a primary objective is ensuring the country will "never have a nuclear weapon." Less clear is how far he is willing to go to seize Iran's nuclear material.

Beirut is bursting.

It's been a month since Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel after the U.S.-Israeli attack on its patron, Iran, triggering Israeli bombardment of Lebanon and a ground invasion. Since then, more than 1 million people from southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs have fled. Many have crammed into the ever-tighter spaces of the country's capital where the bombs have not yet fallen.

The Hezbollah members fighting in the area south of the Litani River are the sons of the area's villages and towns, supported by fighters from the Bekaa Valley and other regions, including foreigners, a media report said.

Paola Fouad Noun, a 25-year-old born and raised in Beirut, moved to San Francisco after completing her university studies in the United States, where she established herself within a specialized team of engineers in Forward Deployed Engineering at Ramp.

She played a foundational role in this field before its widespread expansion and transformation into a primary driver of the industry. At Ramp, which is currently valued at $32 billion, Noun holds a prominent position that has allowed her to witness and adapt to the radical shifts in software development methodologies.

While Washington has signaled a diplomatic off-ramp from its war with Iran, Israel is preparing for the opposite in Lebanon -- an open-ended military campaign against Hezbollah.

Analysts said the message from Israel was a blunt one: Hezbollah must be disarmed, and that will take time.

Lebanon's government has been wedged into a war not of its choosing between Hezbollah and Israel, as the Iran-backed militants harden their stance and Israel demands the group's elimination.

Beirut has been struggling to pull the country back from the brink after Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2, firing rockets into Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader.

During almost three weeks of war in Lebanon, British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu-Sittah has had no respite, telling AFP he has been working "against the clock" to save children wounded in Israeli bombardment.

Forced by yet another war in Lebanon to flee his home for the second time in just two years, and mourning lost relatives and friends, Hassan Kiki said he feels much older than 16.

The line of cars stretched as far as the eye could see along the coast of southern Lebanon, as residents of areas bombarded in the Israel-Hezbollah war poured into the ancient city of Sidon in search of safety.

In southern Lebanon's Ain Ebel, close to the border with Israel, Suad Jallad holds a poster of her son, killed by Israel last week, saying she would rather be buried next to him than leave.