How far will the United States be finding the Iranian nuclear program? | Conflict news

The United States has struck three key nuclear sites in Iran early on Sunday, inserting itself into the War of Israel with Iran in a sophisticated mission and causing fears of military climbing in the Middle East in the middle of the brutal assault of Israel of Gaza.

In a TV address Early on Sunday, US President Donald Trump justified strikes, saying that they were aimed at arresting “nuclear threat” posed by Iran. The Natanz, Isfahan and Ford sites, which are involved in the production or storage of enriched uranium, have been targeted.

“Tonight, I can report to the world that strikes were a spectacular military success. The main nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran were completely and completely erased,” he said, warning Tehran against reprisals.

Israel and Trump claim that Iran can use uranium enriched to make atomic warheads. But Iran insists that its nuclear program is only for civil purposes. The United Nations nuclear guard dog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has also rejected Israeli affirmations that Iran was about to manufacture nuclear weapons.

Sentenceing strikes which, according to American officials, were secretly coordinated, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the moment of diplomacy had passed and that his country had the right to defend itself.

“The Warmonging, a lawless administration in Washington, is only responsible for dangerous consequences and large-scale implications for its act of aggression,” he said at a press conference in Istanbul, Turkiye.

Iranian officials, on the other hand, have not detailed the extent of the damage and tried to minimize the meaning of successes. Speaking on state television, Hassan Abedini, deputy political director of the Iranian state broadcaster, said that the three nuclear sites had been evacuated “some time ago” and that they “had not suffered hard because the equipment had already been removed”.

Here is what you need to know about nuclear power plants and what attacks mean for Iran:

What facilities have been affected?

Trump said on Sunday a complete “erased” bombs ” FordowNatanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. Iranian officials, according to the reuters news agency, also confirmed that the three facilities had been affected.

1. Fordow is an underground enrichment installation in operation since 2006. Built deep inside the mountains at around 48 km (30 miles) from the Iranian city of Qom, north of Tehran, the site benefits from natural coverage. The main objective of Sunday strikes, Fordow was struck by penetration bombs of massive ammunition (MOPS) or to “Bunker-Buster” bombs delivered in B-2 Trendy Bombers, said the president of the chiefs of staff of the American Staff Dan Caine on Sunday. The 13,000 kg GBU-57 MOP (28,700 lb) is the most powerful bunker bomb capable of penetrating 60 m (200 feet) below the ground and deliver up to 2,400 kg (5,300 lb) of explosives, while the bombers are difficult to detect. Caine added that 14 mops had been delivered to at least two nuclear sites. Israel had previously attacked Fordow on June 13, causing surface damage, but security analysts think that only American bunker can enter the installation. An independent assessment of the damage scale is not yet available.
2. Nathanz is considered the largest nuclear enrichment installation in Iran, located about 300 km (186 miles) south of Tehran. It is supposed to compose with two installations. One is the pilot fuel (PFEP) fuel enrichment plant, which is a test and search installation located above the ground and used to assemble centrifugal, rotating machines quickly used for the enrichment of uranium. According to the non -profit organization Nuclear threat initiative, The installation had almost a thousand centrifugal. The other installation, located deep under the ground, is the fuel enrichment plant (FEP). Caine did not specify which weapons struck Natanz on Sunday.
3. Isfahan is an atomic research establishment located in the central city of Isfahan. It was built in the 1970s and was used for the conversion of uranium. It was the last location struck before the American bombing mission, which involved around 125 planes, withdrew from Iranian airspace, according to officials. Caine said that “more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles were fired from Isfahan from American submarines. said the Iranians did not detect the mission and were informed later.

Are the sites destroyed?

The evaluation of the independent impact of the American strikes of Fordow remains uncertain.

Defense secretary Hegseth said on Sunday that “the initial assessment of the United States is that all of our precision ammunition struck where we wanted them to strike and have reached the desired effect”, citing specific damage to Fordow.

Iranian legislator told Al Jazeera that the site had undergone superficial damage. The Israeli strikes on the factory last week only “limited, if necessary”, at the underground factory, according to the boss of IAEA, Rafael Grossi.

The magnitude of damage to Natanz is not clear after the Sunday strike. Earlier, Israeli attacks “completely destroyed” the factory above the ground and caused centrifuge in the underground parts of the uranium plant “seriously damaged if they are not destroyed”, even if it was not directly struck, said Grosi last week.

Meanwhile, the IAEA said on Sunday that six buildings in Isfahan had suffered damage following American attacks, including a workshop handling contaminated equipment. Earlier, Israeli strikes had damaged four buildings on the site, reported the agency, including the central chemical laboratory of the factory.

Initial reports of Iran and neighboring Gulf countries such as Like Kuwait In addition, indicate that there is no significant leak of radioactive materials of one of the plants. This could suggest that Iranian officials could have moved uranium stocks enriched with the United States, analysts said.

According to the IRNA news agency, Reza Kardan, assistant director of the Atomic energy organization of Iran and chief of the National Nuclear System Center in the country, confirmed on Sunday that no contamination by radiation or nuclear radiation was observed outside “sites.

“Preliminary plans had been made and measures had been taken to protect the safety and health of the country’s dear peoples, and despite the criminal actions this morning in the attack on nuclear installations, due to previously planned measures and measures taken, no contamination by radiation or nuclear radiation was observed outside these sites and installations,” said Kardan.

The IAEA also said that the radiation levels near the targeted sites had not increased.

“Following attacks on three nuclear sites in Iran – including Fordow – AIEA can confirm that no increase in out -of -site influence levels have been reported at that time,” said the agency in an article on social networks on Sunday.

Tricita Parsi, executive vice-president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that Iran has taken precautionary measures before American attacks.

“It seems that they had already obtained an advanced warning,” he told Al Jazeera.

“They understood that he (Trump) bought time while moving military assets in order to strike. So I think that for a while, they moved these assets – where they are unclear at this stage.”

Will this derail Iran’s nuclear efforts?

The impact of strikes on the global nuclear program of Iran is still unknown.

However, analysts say that there was no clear evidence that Iran had progressed until they could reach the weapon in its nuclear program in the first place.

Parsi said that Iran’s most precious nuclear asset is its enriched uranium stock.

“As long as they continue to have this, they still have a nuclear program that could still be armed,” he added.

“And I think we are going to start hearing the Israelis in a short term, that it was not the type of successful shot that Trump said, but they will start to plead that it takes a more in progress campaign against Iran.”

Has the Iran nuclear program already suffered setbacks?

• Yes. Iran’s nuclear ambitions began in the 1950s under the direction of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a close ally of the United States and Israel. The original Shah vision was to strengthen Iran’s nuclear capacities for energy production and, to a lesser extent, the manufacture of weapons. The United States, Germany and France have all supported the country with aid and technology. However, following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the new government, under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, interrupted or interrupted parts of the program, arguing that it was expensive and that it represented Iran’s continuous dependence on Western technology.
• The programs put aside or canceled also took a blow during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) when the country was forced to divert resources towards the war effort after the invasion of Iraq. Its Bushehr nuclear reactor site, which was under construction as part of a partnership with the industrial manufacturing giant, Siemens, was seriously bombed by Iraq and was left in almost total damage. Siemens finally withdrew from the project. The government would later have restarted the nuclear program, although Iranian leaders have always insisted that it was pursuing nuclear energy for civil use.
• STUXNET – A computer virus developed by Israel and the United States, probably launched in 2005, but discovered in 2010 – caused numerous Iran’s nuclear capacity damage. The program, nicknamed Operation Olympic Games, compromised the Iranian network and has sprained centrifugal. He would have been quickly extended under the former American president Barack Obama, but started in the administration of the American president George W Bush.
• As part of the Iranian nuclear agreement in 2015 (officially known as Complete joint action plan or JCPOA), the country has been forced to limit its enrichment capacities in exchange for repairing sanctions. The agreement, signed between Iran, China, Russia, the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union, capped an enrichment at 3.67%. The sanctions, some of which have been in place since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, have been gradually suppressed. Tehran complied with the terms of the agreement, According to (IAEA). He also agreed to authorize regular access to regular AIAA. However, Trump retired from the agreement during his first mandate as American president in 2018 and slapped sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign, forcing Tehran to also reject the terms, although he continued to cooperate with the AIEA.