Israeli air attacks reached multiple nuclear sites from Iran. Here

The Israeli army attacked Iranian nuclear facilities, research scientists and high military commanders in dozens of preventive aircraft attacks Friday morning in what he called “Operation Rising Lion.“

The attacks, which according to Israel’s defense forces included “more than 330 different ammunition” in more than 100 Objectives in Iran – He promoted Iran to Spears about 100 missiles In Israel in a retaliation attack later on Friday. The FDI said that its Iron Dome’s anti -mile defense system intercepted most missiles, and US officials confirmed that the United States helped Israel intercept Iranian missiles.

IDF Spokesman Brig. General Effie Defrin said that intelligence showed that “the Iranian regime has progressed significantly in achieving nuclear capacity and its ability to act against us,” calling it an emerging and existential threat to Israel. The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that the United States was not involved in Israel’s air attacks in Iran.

The attacks occurred a day after the Board of Governors of the Atomic Agency of the International censored Iran for the first time in 20 years for not working with its inspectors. Iran immediately announced that it would establish a third enrichment site in the country and exchange some centrifuging for the most advanced.

The OIEA is the United Nations Vienna nuclear control body. He He said in a confidential report last month That Iran has further increased its enriched uranium arsenal to close levels of degree of weapons, and has asked Tehran to urgently change the course and comply with the agency’s investigation.

President Trump urged Iran on Friday To “make an agreement, before nothing is left” and accept new restrictions on its nuclear program While it can still. The president has previously said that the uranium cannot be enriched, a term that Iran has not been willing to accept. Steve Witkoff, the president’s middle east, was ready to hold a sixth round of conversations with Iran in the state of the Gulf of Oman on Sunday.

Here is a look at some of the main Iranian sites and their importance in the Tehran program.

Natanz enrichment installation

Iran’s nuclear installation in Natanz, located about 135 miles southeast of Tehran, is the main enrichment site in the country.

Part of the installation on the Iran Central Plateau is underground to defend against possible air attacks. It operates multiple waterfalls, or centrifuging groups that work together to enrich uranium more quickly.

Iran is also burying in the KoH-E Kolang Gaz Lā mountain, or Mountain Pickox, which is right beyond the near South of Natanz. Natanz has been attacked by the Stuxnet computer virus, which is believed to be an Israeli and American creation, which destroyed Iranian centrifuges. Two separate sabotage attacks, attributed to Israel, have also hit the installation.

In testimony on Friday before the UN on the attacks of Israel, the general director of the OIEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said Iran confirmed that his Natanz fuel enrichment plant had been attacked. He said that the portion on the floor of the plant where Iran was producing enriched uranium up to 60% had been “destroyed” and centrifuging may have been damaged. He said that the Iranian authorities also reported attacks against the Fordow fuel enrichment plant and the ESFAHAN site.

Fordo

Iran’s nuclear installation in Fordo is around 60 miles southwest of Tehran. It also houses Centrifuge Cascades, but it is not an installation as large as Natanz.

Buried under a mountain and protected by anti -aircraft batteries, Fordo appears designed to withstand air attacks.

Its construction began at least in 2007, according to OIEA, although Iran only informed the UN nuclear guard dog on the facilities in 2009 after Western intelligence agencies of the United States. UU. And allies realized their existence.

Bushehr nuclear energy plant

Iran’s only commercial nuclear energy plant is found in Bushehr in the Persian Gulf, about 465 miles south of Tehran. The construction of the plant began under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran in the mid-1970s. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the plant was repeatedly attacked in the Iran-Iraq war. Later, Russia completed the construction of the installation.

Iran is building two other reactors like this on the site. Bushehr is fed by the uranium produced in Russia, not in Iran, and is monitored by the OIEA.

ARAK heavy water reactor

Arak’s heavy water reactor is 155 miles southwest of Tehran. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond the enriched uranium, if you choose to pursue the weapon. Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers to redesign the installation to relieve proliferation concerns.

USA. withdraw Of the international nuclear agreement known as JCPOA, or a joint comprehensive action plan, in 2018, and Iran partially retired in 2019.

ISFAHAN Nuclear Technology Center

The installation in Isfahan, about 215 miles southeast of Tehran, employs thousands of nuclear scientists. It is also home to three Chinese and laboratory research reactors associated with the country’s atomic program.

Tehran research reactor

Tehran’s research reactor is located at the headquarters of the Iran’s atomic energy organization, the civil organism that supervises the country’s atomic program. The United States really provided Iran the reactor in 1967 as part of the “Atoms For Peace” program of the United States during the Cold War. Initially it required a highly enriched uranium, but was then modernized to use uranium under enriched on proliferation concerns.

Kathryn Watson, Melissa Quinn and Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.

• Iran
• Israel
• Iran Nuclear Program