Latest news with #NuclearFacilities
CNN
an hour ago
- Politics
- CNN
Israel attacked three key Iranian nuclear facilities. Did it strike a decisive blow?
Israel's unprecedented attacks on Iran had at their core an elusive and high-risk goal: eradicating the country's controversial nuclear program. Israel targeted three key Iranian nuclear facilities – Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow – and a number of top scientists involved in nuclear research and development. The extent of the damage – and whether Iran's nuclear program can survive – is not immediately clear. An Israeli military official said at a briefing Saturday that strikes on Iran's nuclear sites in Natanz and Isfahan were able to damage the sites 'significantly;' Iran said that damage to the facilities was limited but acknowledged the deaths of nine experts. 'We are at a key point where, if we miss it, we will have no way to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons that will threaten our existence,' Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday. 'We have dealt with Iran's proxies over the past year and a half, but now we are dealing with the head of the snake itself.' Iran insists its program is peaceful - here's what we know about the damage to the three sites. Initial assessments indicate that Israel's strikes on Iran's Natanz nuclear facility were extremely effective, going far beyond superficial damage to exterior structures and knocking out the electricity on the lower levels where the centrifuges used to enrich uranium are stored, two US officials told CNN. 'This was a full-spectrum blitz,' said another source familiar with the assessments. The strikes destroyed the above-ground part of Natanz's Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant, a sprawling site that has been operating since 2003 and where Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Weapons-grade uranium is enriched to 90%. CNN obtained radar imagery from a space imaging company, Umbra, which captured damage to several areas of the Natanz facility. Other satellite imagery reviewed by CNN showed the same damage more clearly, with black plumes of smoke visibly rising from multiple locations across the site. Electrical infrastructure at Natanz – including the main power supply building, plus emergency and back-up generators – was also destroyed, the IAEA said. That assessment is supported by the two US officials, who told CNN that electricity was knocked out on the lower levels where the centrifuges used to enrich uranium are stored. That aspect of the operation is crucial, because much of the Natanz facility is heavily fortified and underground, so wiping out the power to those parts of the facility is the most effective way to impact underground equipment and machinery. It does not appear that Israel damaged those underground parts of the plant directly, the IAEA said, but the loss of power to the underground cascade hall 'may have damaged the centrifuges there.' Natanz has six above-ground buildings and three underground buildings, two of which can hold 50,000 centrifuges, according to the non-profit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). Centrifuges are machines that can enrich uranium by spinning the gas at high speeds. There is no wider radiological impact. 'The level of radioactivity outside the Natanz site has remained unchanged and at normal levels,' the IAEA said. 'However, due to the impacts, there is radiological and chemical contamination inside the facilities in Natanz,' it added – though the levels would be manageable. The extent of damage at the Isfahan nuclear site in central Iran was more difficult to parse in the hours after it was struck, with conflicting claims over the attack's impact emerging in Israel and Iran. Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesperson of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said Saturday that damage at the site – Iran's largest nuclear research complex – was limited. Equipment at the two facilities was moved in anticipation of the strikes, Kamalvandi said. A shed at the facility caught fire, he added, and there is no risk of contamination. But Israel were more bullish; an IDF official said during a Saturday briefing that the site took significant damage. The facility was built with support from China and opened in 1984, the NTI says. According to the non-profit, 3,000 scientists are employed at Isfahan, and the site is 'suspected of being the center' of Iran's nuclear program. It 'operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors,' as well as a 'conversion facility, a fuel production plant, a zirconium cladding plant, and other facilities and laboratories,' the NTI says. At a Saturday briefing, an IDF official said Israel had 'concrete intelligence' that Iran was 'moving forward to a nuclear bomb' at the Isfahan facility. Despite advancing its uranium enrichment significantly, Iran has repeatedly said that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and denied that it was developing an atomic bomb. The Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is a far more difficult site to target. The plant is buried deep in the mountains near Qom, in northern Iran, and houses advanced centrifuges used to enrich uranium up to high grades of purity. Israel targeted the site during its Friday attacks, but the IAEA said it was not impacted and the IDF has not claimed any significant damage there. Iranian air defenses shot down an Israeli drone in the vicinity of the plant, Iranian state media Press TV reported Friday evening. Fordow's fate could be pivotal to the overall success of Israel's attacks. In 2023, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that uranium particles enriched to 83.7% purity – which is close to the 90% enrichment levels needed to make a nuclear bomb – had been found in Fordow. 'If Fordow remains operational, Israel's attacks may barely slow Iran's path to the bomb,' James M. Acton, the co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote on Friday. Acton said Israel might be able to collapse the entrance to the facility, but noted that destroying much more of the Fordow site will be a difficult task for Israel. CNN's Katie Polglase, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Christian Edwards, Henry Zeris, Thomas Bordeaux, Avery Schmit, Teele Rebane, Isaac Yee, Mostafa Salem, Betsy Klein, Sarah Ferris, Katie Bo Lillis, Kylie Atwood and Alayna Treene contributed reporting
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
BORIS JOHNSON: Starmer's leading the most abject and craven British government of the past 100 years. They are so weak they make Neville Chamberlain look positively robust
As they pounded the Iranian nuclear facilities yesterday, the Israelis were finally doing what so many Western leaders had expected they would do for years, if not decades. In fact, let us be honest: the rest of the world has not just been expecting this Israeli action. Secretly or openly, many governments have been hoping for it.
BBC News
a day ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Who were the Iranian commanders killed in Israel's attack?
Israel struck dozens of targets, including nuclear facilities, military sites and private residences, across Iran on Friday, killing a number of senior military commanders in what it called "Operation Rising Lion".The Israeli attacks also targeted a number of other influential figures linked to Iran's nuclear programmes, including six nuclear scientists, IRGC-affiliated news agency Tasnim of civilians, including children, have also been reported what we know so far about the high-profile individuals among the dead. Mohammad Bagheri Bagheri was the highest ranking military officer in Iran, being the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces - which includes both the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the Iranian joined the IRGC in 1980 aged 20 and, alongside his brother, helped establish the IRGC's intelligence unit during the Iran-Iraq was considered less hardline than other commanders. He had come under criticism recently for a speech he made in April in front of the ancient ruins of Persepolis in which he called for peace and urged for the avoidance of Mousavi has been appointed the new chief of staff of the armed forces, Iranian state news agency Irna said. He does not come from within the ranks of the IRGC, being an army general. Hossein Salami Hossein Salami was the commander-in-chief of the joined the IRGC in 1980 during the Iran-Iraq war, and went on to become a deputy commander in 2009, before progressing to commander in for his ability as an orator, he took a hard-line stance towards Israel and as recently as last month said Tehran would "open the gates of hell" if attacked by either Israel or the Pakpour has been appointed as the new commander of the IRGC, Iranian state media report. Gholamali Rashid Gholamali Rashid was the head of the IRGC's Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, which coordinates joint Iranian military fought in the 1980s war with Iraq and was formerly the deputy chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Rashid's death, Ali Shadmani has been appointed the emergency command's new leader, according to Iranian state media. Amir Ali Hajizadeh The commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Force, Hajizadeh was a prominent figure in charge of the country's missiles Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Hajizadeh had gathered in an underground command centre along with the majority of the IRGC's air force commanders to prepare for an attack on IDF said the group was then killed in a strike targeting the said Hajizadeh commanded Iran's missile attacks on Israel in October and April last was regarded less favourably by members of Iran's general public after he took responsibility for downing a Ukrainian passenger plane flying out of Tehran in 2020, which killed all 176 people on board. Fereydoon Abbasi Abbasi, a nuclear scientist, served as the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation between 2011 and 2013. He went on to be a member of parliament from 2020 to promoted hardline positions to do with Iran's nuclear May, he spoke on Iranian TV channel about potentially building a nuclear weapon, and said he would willingly carry out orders to do so if he received them. Nuclear scientists A number of other nuclear scientists are also reported by Iranian state media to have been are:Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was also the head of Azad University in TehranAbdulhamid Minouchehr, head of nuclear engineering at Iran's Shahid Beheshti UniversityAhmad Reza Zolfaghari, a nuclear engineering professor at Shahid Beheshti UniversityAmirhossein Feqhi, another nuclear professor at Shahid Beheshti University Live: Latest updates as Israel targets Iran's nuclear sitesIran's Revolutionary Guards chief, killed by IsraelWhy Israel has decided to inflict damage on Iran's elite nowWhat we know about Israel's attacks on IranBBC Verify Live: Tracking Israel's strikes on Iran using verified video
LBCI
a day ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Hezbollah warns Israel's Iran strikes 'threaten to ignite the region'
Hezbollah warned Friday that Israel's strikes on Iran "threaten to ignite the region." The group, which fought a two-month war with Israel last year, condemned the "brutal Israeli aggression" against Iranian nuclear facilities and scientists and said Israel was "engaging in adventures that threaten to ignite the entire region." AFP
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Iran president says Tehran will 'make Israel regret its foolish actions'
Masoud Pezeshkian, responding to a series of Israeli attacks overnight, promised harsh and decisive action. Israel said it targeted Iran's nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders at the start of what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran building an atomic weapon
