According to recent snapshots from Plant Labs, Iran is building a new nuclear site near Natanz, so protected that it could withstand the best Western conventional weapons.
The development of Iran's nuclear program is a matter of great concern on the international scene, particularly for the neighbors of the Islamic Republic, but also for Western countries that depend on energy supplies from the Middle East, as well as for Israel, which has long been designated by Tehran as the country's major adversary.
Over the past few years, warning messages have come and gone, as Iran has purified quantities of uranium in its centrifuges well beyond the limits authorized by the International Atomic Energy Agency, 10 times more even, according to the organization.
Iran itself contributes to this concern, by announcing that it has succeeded in building up a stockpile of 300 kilos of uranium enriched to 60% and has even reached an enrichment rate of 83,7%, a few % of the threshold of 90% for the creation of a nuclear weapon.
And the latest revelations made by the Associated Press based on analysis of Planet Labs PBC satellite images, showing major excavation work near Natanz, 220 km south of Tehran, and especially near another major Iranian nuclear site.
Satellite images show that the site of the work is heavily protected, in particular by anti-aircraft defenses and by units of the Revolutionary Guards, while the mountain of debris suggests that the installation under construction would be particularly deep and voluminous.
It would thus be sufficient not only to receive the Iranian centrifuges, but also other installations, and above all at such a depth that they would be beyond the reach of the best Western conventional systems, including American ones.
It is clear that many conjectures surround the demonstration made by the AP in the analysis of the Planet Labs images of the Natanz site. However, it cannot be denied either that the reasoning is sound, and that the assumptions on which it is built are sound. I
It is therefore not a matter of certainty, even less of proof, but these works, their location and their nature do in fact tend to accredit the hypothesis of a nuclear installation, even if, in compliance with international law, Tehran should have declared the construction of such infrastructures to the IAEA, which it obviously did not do.
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