The mountain fortress Israel must destroy to topple Iran's nuclear program

Sydney Morning Herald

8 hours ago

The events of the past few days appear to have proved that Israel has near-total air superiority over Iran. Iranian armed forces have been powerless to counter the Israeli airstrikes that have destroyed critical buildings and wiped out swathes of the Islamic Republic's military leadership.
At least 14 Iranian nuclear scientists have also been killed by the unilateral operation, codenamed Rising Lion, which appears aimed at decapitating the country's nuclear program.
One key site remains relatively unscathed, however: the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. Located 30 kilometres from the ancient, central city of Qom, and about 160 kilometre south of Tehran, Fordow is one of two nuclear enrichment sites in the country. The other, in Natanz, was reportedly partially destroyed in the initial attacks.
Hidden in the mountains, its key buildings buried deep underground, Fordow is an altogether more challenging target. Ringed by anti-air defences, it has become a symbol of Iranian defiance as well as its technological ingenuity. If Israel is truly to dismantle Iran's nuclear capabilities, it must disable Fordow.
That's because here, uranium is enriched in centrifuges at up to 60 per cent, a shade under the purity needed to build a nuclear weapon.
'The entire operation ... really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordow,' Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter told reporters on Friday. A day later, Iranian sources reported that Fordow had been attacked, but with limited damage.
'The be-all and end-all of Iran's nuclear operation'
Analysts have described the mountainous fortress, which sits within an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base, as 'the be-all and end-all of Iran's nuclear operation'.