Israel destroyed one of Iran’s secret active nuclear research facilities in October, it has emerged.
A new report from Axios, citing three US officials, one current Israeli official and one former Israeli official, says the Israeli Air Force (IAF) targeted the site as part of last month’s “precise strikes” across the Islamic Republic.
The strike targeted a site previously reported to be inactive, significantly damaging Iran’s efforts to resume nuclear weapons development over the past year.
The target destroyed was the Talehgan 2 facility in the Parchin military complex, just outside capital Tehran.
The Parchin military complex, pictured in November 2022
MAXAR
The facility was reportedly part of the Iranian Amad nuclear weapons program until 2003. It was previously used to test explosives.
The former official said the strike had destroyed equipment used to design the plastic explosives that surround uranium in a nuclear device – which are needed to detonate it.
US and Israeli officials said the secret research conducted inside Iran’s Talehgan 2 facility was intended to be used for the development of nuclear weapons, but could also be presented as research for civilian purposes.
Intelligence from the two allied countries began to detect activity from Iranian scientists at the site this year.
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A US official said the activity being carried out was extremely confidential.
“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,” said the source.
It’s understood that the facility was chosen by Israel as a target in retaliation for Iran’s October 1 missile attack.
President Biden reportedly asked Prime Minister Netanyahu to refrain from attacking nuclear facilities in Iran to avoid a significant war.
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However, because Taleghan 2 was not part of Iran’s declared nuclear program, the Iranian government would not be able to acknowledge the impact of the attack without exposing themselves as having violated the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
A US official said this strike was done to send a strong message to Iran.
They said: “The strike was a not so subtle message that the Israelis have significant insight into the Iranian system even when it comes to things that were kept top secret and known to a very small group of people in the Iranian government.”