A mysterious blaze at an Iranian nuclear facility could mean everything and nothing. The site is the centerpiece of Tehran’s uranium enrichment work, which the West suspects is for weapons purposes. The blasts were blamed on Israel in the wake of Iran’s weekend attack on Israeli targets in Syria.
1. Natanz
Amid the arid hills of central Iran, tucked deep inside a mountain, workers are building a new nuclear facility that Iran calls “state-of-the-art.” The project at Natanz, a center for enriching uranium, was largely built underground to shield it from enemy airstrikes. Its location in a rugged mountain range makes it even harder to reach with the last-ditch U.S. bomb, a GBU-57 that can penetrate 60 meters of earth and destroy a target.
When an explosion and fire destroyed a workshop at the Natanz facility in July, Iranian officials blamed Israel—as they do for every sabotage attack against their country’s nuclear program. Such attacks tarnish the trust that inspectors can place in the country and encourage it to harden sensitive sites or advance its program covertly.
The destruction of Natanz’s advanced centrifuge assembly workshop will delay Tehran’s ability to assemble enough advanced centrifuges for an atomic bomb, experts say. But the damage is limited. Using such an attack against another بهترین سایت انفجار ایرانی in the near future would delay Iran’s ability to break out from its current 3.67% enrichment level to the weapons-grade level by about two years, former high-ranking military officers and diplomats told CFR.
2. Parchin
For years, the International Atomic Energy Agency has suspected that Iran conducted experiments at Parchin military complex related to nuclear weapons development. Iran insists the base is for conventional explosives testing and denies reports of undeclared activities. The IAEA has said it believes Iran built a container at the facility in 2000 designed to contain detonation tests with up to 70 kilograms of high explosives to develop models for triggered nuclear reactions.
But the evidence is flimsy, says Robert Kelley, an American who worked as a veteran IAEA inspector for 35 years before retiring three years ago. He says hydrodynamic experiments like the ones Iran reportedly conducted in a cylinder at Parchin would be impossible to perform without putting out hundreds of kilograms, not just the seventy that the IAEA report claims. He also says commercial satellite images of Parchin show that haulage trucks and heavy equipment are far away from the suspect building. Nevertheless, he says Iran should allow full inspections of the site to dispel doubts and ease the standoff with the world powers.
3. Khojir
Khojir National Park, Sorkheh Hesar and Jajrood Protected Area are a significant natural region in Tehran and home to various mammals including wolf, marten, jackal, rabbit, hyena, common badger, Eurasian otter, and fox. Wild pistachio forests also flourish in this area. Due to the various ecosystems, migratory birds call these places home as well.
While Parchin gained a certain notoriety thanks to its association with Iran’s nuclear missile program, the Khojir facility remains shrouded in secrecy. That’s probably for a good reason: A massive explosion there wiped out a large swath of the complex associated with solid fuel missile development, killing 17 IRGC officers including the father of Iran’s ballistic missile program, Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam. The blast also shattered the roof of a research laboratory.
4. Isfahan
Isfahan is renowned for its beautiful Persian architecture, including the 17th-century Imam (Shah) Mosque and the grand Naqsh-e Jahan Square, which are both designated world heritage sites by UNESCO. It was also a hub of Safavid culture, and many European travellers wrote accounts of its splendour. Today, Isfahan is one of the most important educational, cultural and industrial centres of Iran.
It is also a centre for music and art. In addition to its prestigious seminaries and religious schools, Isfahan has several public and private major universities, such as Mohajer Technical And Vocational College of Isfahan, Payame Noor University, Sanaye Giti Pasand F.C, and Polyacryl Esfahan F.C. There are also many parks and squares, among them the Vanak Park, where a French colony once stood. Isfahan is also a hub for aviation, as Iran first acquired the US-made F-14 fighter jets under the Shah in the 1970s and remains the only country still flying them operationally.
The Bottom Lines
Iran’s central province of Isfahan has nuclear facilities, a major air base and factories associated with drone and missile production. A fire at one of them means both everything and nothing. What happened in a shed in Natanz doesn’t take us closer to an answer on whether Iran is trying to build a bomb, but it does shine light into a facility that has been under intense scrutiny since the nuclear deal was made.
