The withdrawal of international inspectors comes amid heightened concerns that Iran, battered by Israeli and U.S. strikes, may be driven to try to build a nuclear bomb.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday its inspectors have departed Tehran and arrived safely to Vienna after Iran suspended cooperation in the wake of attacks on its nuclear program by Israel and the United States.

The move intensifies a standoff over Iran’s nuclear work following Tehran’s decision to suspend cooperation with the agency.

Even the prospect of civil war cannot be ruled out,' an expert tracking growing violence in the West Bank told Newsweek.

Critics feared it would plunge the Middle East into a wider war. That doomsday scenario has not come to pass, at least for now: Iran made only symbolic retaliation against America; soon after, a ceasefire ended the fighting between Iran and Israel.