DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Amid tensions over its nuclear program, Iran has begun construction at a site on its underground nuclear facility at Fordo, satellite photos obtained Friday by the Associated Press show.
Iran has not publicly acknowledged any new construction at Fordo, which was discovered by the West in the early stages of the force before it was discovered by world powers in a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran in 2009.
While the purpose of the building is unclear, any action at Fordo would likely raise new concerns in the weak days of the Trump administration before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Already, Iran is building on its Natanz nuclear facility after a mysterious explosion there in July that described Tehran as a sabotage attack..
“Any changes to the site will be closely monitored as an indication of the direction of Iran’s nuclear program,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, which studies Iran.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The International Atomic Energy Agency, whose observers are in Iran as part of the nuclear deal, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The IAEA has not yet publicly stated if Iran had given it information about any construction at Fordo.
Construction began on the Fordo site in late September. A.P. Satellite images obtained by Maxer Technologies show that construction is taking place at the northwest corner of the site, about five kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Tehran, near the holy Shiite city of Kum.
Satellite photo on December 11 shows what the excavated foundation for the dozens of pillar building looks like. Such columns can be used in construction to support houses in earthquake zones.
The construction site is located northwest of Fordo’s underground facility, built inside a mountain to protect it from potential air strikes. The site is close to other support and research and development buildings in Fordo.
The buildings also house Iran’s National Vacuum Technology Center. Vacuum technology is a critical component of Iran’s uranium-gas centrifuges, which enrich uranium.
Earlier this week a Twitter account called Twitter Buzzer IL Published an image of Fordo showing construction, Citing it, said it came from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute in South Korea.
The AP later reached out to a Twitter user who identified himself as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces with a civil engineering background. He asked that his name not be published on the previous threats he received online. Korea Aerospace Research Institute agrees to take satellite photo.
Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, agreeing to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting economic sanctions on Tehran. Trump cited Iran’s ballistic missile program, its regional policies and other issues in withdrawing from the agreement, although the deal focuses entirely on Tehran’s nuclear program.
When the U.S. increased sanctions, Iran slowly and publicly abandoned the deal because a series of escalating events pushed both countries to the brink of war earlier this year.. The tension is still high.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran agreed to stop enriching uranium at Fordo and make it a “nuclear, physics and technology center.”
“This position was a major turning point in the negotiations leading to the Iran nuclear deal,” Lewis said. “The U.S. insisted on shutting down Iran when Iran’s supreme leader said it had a red line.”
After the collapse of this deal, Iran has started to prosper there again.
Shinkled from the mountains, it is also riddled with anti-facility guns and other fortifications. It’s about the size of a football field, big enough to hold 3,000 centrifuges, but the U.S. They became so small and hard to convince officials that they had a military purpose when they made the site public in 200 exposed.
So far, Iran is enriching uranium to 4.5 ..% in violation of the agreement limit 3 .. 4.567%. Iran’s parliament has passed a bill that would require Tehran to be enriched by up to 20%., A short technical step of 90% from the weapon-grade level. The bill would also exclude IAEA inspectors.
Experts say Iran now has enough stockpile of uranium for at least two nuclear weapons, if it chooses to pursue it. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.
When Iranian President Hassan Rouhani opposed the bill, the country’s Guardian Council later tweeted and approved it. The bill urges European countries to ease US sanctions.
Meanwhile, an Iranian scientist who built his military nuclear program two decades ago was shot dead outside Tehran.. Iran has blamed Israel, which has been suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists for decades, for the attack. Israel has not commented on the attack.
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Follow John Gambler on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
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