US Strikes On Iran Nuclear Facilities
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he planned to fly to Moscow and would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow morning for consultations on how to proceed.
Vice President JD Vance signaled Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is still intact and in Iranian control.
Following the United States’ strikes on Iran nuclear facilities; the country’s clerical leaders are confronted with a dangerous dilemma: escalate the conflict by retaliating against the United States.
which would involve a war between two militarily stronger adversaries, or resume nuclear negotiations.
which would likely require them to compromise on nuclear enrichment and their ballistic missile arsenal, which are fundamental to Iran’s sovereignty.
While European leaders warned Iran against a response that would “destabilize the region,” President Trump remained firm in his demand that Iran accept American conditions for a peace accord.
“If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” Trump tweeted on Sunday, leaving no room for doubt that he would support a change in Iran’s government.
Israel claims to have destroyed half of Iran’s missile launchers in its military operations this month, which weakened the country’s missile stockpile and military infrastructure.
Iran has additional options for retaliation, including cyberattacks, terrorist proxies, or blocking oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, although the precise scale is still unknown.
Stock and oil markets were on edge due to uncertainty over Iran’s response, with U.S. futures sliding marginally lower. How severely the United States’ bunker-busting munitions hit would influence Iran’s reaction. The extent to which they had entered the nuclear sites remained mostly unclear in the early evaluations.
Iranian authorities claimed they had reduced the strikes’ effects to a minimum.
Several enormous holes were drilled in a ridge over the underground Fordow uranium-enrichment facility, and entrances were plugged with mud and trash, according to satellite photographs acquired by Maxar Technologies.
US air strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites
Fighter jets. Diving vessels. Cruise missiles. Bombs that weigh 30,000 pounds.
On Saturday night, US President Donald Trump struck three of Iran’s critical nuclear sites, using extreme force after initially favouring negotiation.
Despite Trump’s claims that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “obliterated,” some Iranian officials have played down the significance of the strikes, mirroring their behaviour after Israel’s initial strikes on June 13.
Now that satellite photos of the strikes from the previous night are starting to surface, here is what we know regarding the harm that the US caused to Iran’s nuclear program.
On Saturday evening, US President Donald Trump made an announcement on the three nuclear sites in Iran: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. This comes as the conflict between Israel and Iran enters its second week.
FORDOW
Buried deep into a mountain to evade assaults, Fordow is Iran’s most crucial nuclear enrichment site.
The primary auditoriums are supposedly located 80–90 meters (262–295 ft) underground. The massive, 30,000-pound GBU-57 is the only weapon in the world capable of digging so deep, according to analysts. No other force has this weapon.
Twelve of the “bunker-busting” bombs were dropped on the site by six B-2 bombers, according to a US official who informed CNN.
It is premature to determine if the “direct kinetic impact” on Fordow caused internal damage to the subterranean site, according to Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
“Obviously, it is not out of the question that there could be substantial damage,” he stated.
Jenzen-Jones explained that the two groups’ bigger, central entry holes were shaped irregularly, which could indicate that many munition strikes occurred at the same exact spot.
“This fits well with the idea that attacking the Fordow site, which is buried deep underground, would necessitate the use of numerous accurately placed penetrating munition to “smash” and blast their way into the site’s deeper, safer sections,” he explained.
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif of Iran called the US action a “very big red line,” but other Iranian officials played down the significance of the strikes. The damage from the strike was described by Manan Raeisi, a politician representing the city of Qom near Fordow, as “quite superficial.”
He stated that Iran has downplayed the effects of earlier strikes on its nuclear installations, but satellite images reveal otherwise.
NATANZ
The initial strike on Iran by Israel on June 13 targeted Natanz, the location of Iran’s biggest nuclear enrichment facility. Centrifuges, an essential tool in the nuclear enrichment process that transforms uranium into nuclear fuel, are housed in three underground facilities and six above-ground buildings at the facility.
During Israel’s first strike, the above-ground facilities were damaged. The IAEA stated that the centrifuges there “may have been damaged” due to the power outage in the underground cascade hall, while it is unclear whether the strikes directly damaged the facilities.
On Saturday night, the United States also conducted an operation aimed at Natanz. A US official confirmed that two bunker-busting bombs were dropped on the site by a B-2 aircraft. As a third Iranian target, Natanz and Isfahan were struck by 30 TLAM cruise missiles fired at them by US Navy submarines.
The bunker-busting bombs probably caused two fresh holes to form at the location, The craters, one measuring around 5.5 meters in diameter and the other around 3.2 meters in diameter based on Maxar photos, are situated right over subterranean components of the complex. There has been extensive subsurface damage at the site, but the exact degree is still unknown.
ISFAHAN
The largest nuclear research complex in Iran is in Isfahan, which is in the center of the country.
According to the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), China helped build the facility, which opened in 1984. According to NTI, Isfahan employs about 3,000 scientists and is “suspected of being the center” of Iran’s nuclear program.
Albright claimed that early reports said the US also hit tunnel complexes near the Isfahan location, which is where they usually keep enriched uranium.
Albright remarked that if this were true, it would mean that the US was seeking to get rid of Iran’s uranium that had been enriched to 20% and 60%. Uranium that is used in weapons is 90% enriched.
The Institute for Science and International Security released an evaluation on Sunday that indicated Isfahan had been “heavily damaged.”
The institution added that the primary uranium conversion unit at the complex, which turns natural uranium into the form that is put into gas centrifuges, was “severely damaged.”
At least three of the four doors had fallen down.
The institute added that it has seen satellite pictures from Friday that show the entrances to the tunnels being filled with dirt again.
It noted, “This is probably a safety measure to keep an explosion from happening or to keep dangerous materials from leaving the facility.”
General Dan Caine, the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated at a Pentagon press briefing on Sunday that a US submarine had “launched more than a dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets” at the Isfahan facility.
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