Israel’s October Attack Destroys Secret Iranian Nuclear Facility : Report

 

In late October, Israel attacked a secret nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin, Iran, US and Israeli officials reported on Friday.

The strike targeted the Taleghan 2 facility, which was previously reported to be inactive but had shown renewed activity. Israeli and US officials confirmed that the attack significantly damaged Iran’s efforts to resume nuclear weapons research.

A former Israeli official briefed on the strike said it destroyed sophisticated equipment used to design the plastic explosives needed to detonate a nuclear device.

The Taleghan 2 facility, part of the Iranian Amad nuclear weapons program until 2003, was used for testing explosives needed to set off a nuclear device. High-resolution satellite imagery acquired after the strike showed the building was completely destroyed.

Israeli and US officials stated that the recent activity at the Taleghan 2 facility was part of an initiative within the Iranian government to conduct research potentially aimed at developing nuclear weapons, while also being framed as research for civilian applications.

“They conducted scientific activity that could lay the ground for the production of a nuclear weapon. It was a top-secret thing. A small part of the Iranian government knew about this, but most of the Iranian government didn’t,” a US official told Axios.

Israeli and US intelligence first began identifying research activity at Parchin earlier this year, which included Iranian scientists working on computer modeling, metallurgy, and explosive research that could be applied to the development of nuclear weapons.

Last June, the White House officials privately warned the Iranians about the suspicious research activities. The US hoped the warning would make the Iranians stop their nuclear activity, but they continued, the officials said.

The ongoing research into Iranian nuclear weapons prompted the US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to revise its assessment of Iran‘s nuclear program.

However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement last week that “Iran is not after nuclear weapons, period. This is a policy based on Islamic teachings and our security calculations.”

On October 26, the Israeli military confirmed it had targeted military sites in Iran in retaliation for Iranian missile strikes against Israel on October 1. Iran characterized its missile attack as a response to the killing of its backed leaders and a member of the Revolutionary Guard.