Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Iran has begun construction of a site at its underground nuclear facility in Fordo amid tensions with the U.S. over its nuclear program, satellite photos obtained Friday by The Associated Press show. Iran has not publicly recognized any new construction in Fordo, the discovery of the West in 2009 occurred in a previous round of power before the world powers reached the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
While the purpose of the building is still unclear, any work at Fordo is likely to spark new concern in the Trump administration’s waning days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Already, Iran is building its Natanz nuclear facility after a mysterious explosion back in July that Tehran described as a sabotage attack.
“Any change in this place will be carefully seen as a sign of where Iran’s nuclear program is headed,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Institute of Middlebury International Studies studying Iran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, whose inspectors are in Iran as part of the nuclear deal, did not immediately respond to the request for comment. The IAEA has not publicly disclosed whether Iran reported any construction to Fordo.
“As you know, the IAEA has field inspectors in Iran and there is an unprecedented 24-hour inspection mechanism. Therefore, none of Iran’s nuclear activities are secret,” he said. tell Pamela Falk, UN spokeswoman Alireza Miryousefi.
“We have always maintained that our current activities that are in line with JCPOA can and will be reversed immediately once the other parties, including the United States, fully comply with what was agreed, particularly by removing sanctions,” he said. Miryousefi.
About a year ago, Iran said yes injected uranium gas into the centrifuges in the Fordo underground complex, in what was then its most important step in the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal in response to President Trump’s withdrawal.
New construction of the Fordo site began in late September. Satellite images obtained from Maxar Technologies by the AP show the construction being carried out on a northwest corner of the site, near the holy Shiite city of Qom, about 55 kilometers south. west of Tehran.
A December 11 satellite photo shows what appears to be a new excavated base for a building with dozens of pillars. These pillars can be used in construction to support buildings in earthquake zones.
The construction site is located northwest of the Fordo underground facility, built deep inside a mountain to protect it from possible airstrikes. The site is close to other Fordo support and research and development buildings.
Among these buildings is Iran’s National Vacuum Technology Center. Vacuum technology is a crucial component of Iran’s uranium-gas centrifuges, which enrich uranium.
In 2018, Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal with Iran, in which Tehran had agreed to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. Trump cited Iran’s ballistic missile program, its regional policies, and other issues as it withdrew from the deal, although the deal focused entirely on Tehran’s atomic program.
As the United States increased sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the limits of the agreement, as a series of escalating incidents pushed the two countries to the brink of war earlier this year. . Tensions remain high today.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran agreed to stop enriching uranium in Fordo and turn it into “a nuclear, physics and technology center.”
“This location was an important point in the negotiations that led to Iran’s nuclear deal,” Lewis said. “The United States insisted that Iran close it while Iran’s supreme leader said keeping it was a red line.”
Since the collapse of the agreement, Iran has resumed enrichment, as confirmed by the gas injection announced a year ago.
Protected by mountains, the facility is also surrounded by anti-aircraft guns and other fortifications. It is the size of a football field, large enough to house 3,000 centrifuges, but small and hardened enough to make U.S. officials suspect it had a military purpose when it publicly exposed the site in 2009.
At present, Iran enriches uranium to 4.5%, violating the agreement limit of 3.67%. The Iranian parliament has passed a bill requiring Tehran to enrich up to 20%, a short technical step from 90% weapons grade levels. The bill would also expel IAEA inspectors.
Experts say Iran now has enough stockpile of low-enriched uranium for at least two nuclear weapons, if it chose to pursue them. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.
The bill seeks to pressure European nations to help them paralyzing U.S. sanctions. Along with the task of assembling nuclear sites, it is also intended that Iran will have more leverage with the incoming Biden administration if and when negotiations, whether bilateral or the resumption of international talks that led to the agreement of 2015.
Biden has said he will offer Tehran a “credible path to diplomacy,” but stressed that Iran must return to compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal. If it does, its administration would also “rejoin the agreement.”
The Iranian president has promised a “quick” return to accession under the terms of the nuclear deal if Biden leaves the sanctions his predecessor imposed on his country over the past two years.
The president-elect has consistently argued that the 2015 agreement signed by its former leader, former President Barack Obama, “blocked Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”