Israel expands strikes on Iran
Is Israel Expanding Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Expand? Comments on the Natanz Observation by NPR
If the Israelis decide to keep bombing them, they will always be able to reconstitute the program.
Lewis says he wonders whether military force can truly eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. In the end, he says, there is no single facility or scientist that holds the key to the entire nuclear enterprise in Iran.
There was no evidence Lewis saw that Israel had struck at tunnels beneath the mountain. Iran dug tunnels to build a more fortified facility for its Centrifuges, according to reports. In the last few days, it has promised to accelerate development of a third site possibly in the mountain facility.
Lewis says the plant’s operations may be disrupted but that they didn’t find a way to destroy thousands of centrifuges beneath the ground.
Black smoke can be seen billowing from the Natanz site in the video posted online by NPR. There were damaged buildings in the set of images that were taken from the commercial satellite company.
Source: Israel expands strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities
The Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the first day of the 2011 Iranian Nuclear Planned Run-and-Run Conference
The damage from the first wave of attacks appears to be limited according to preliminary analysis of satellite imagery, according to Jeffrey Lewis, a professor who has tracked Iran’s program.
Iran would accelerate its nuclear program if the region’s “Iranian axis” were broken, warned Netanyahu. The attack on Iran was supposed to occur in April but it was postponed, Netanyahu added.
It’s unclear how fast that material could be converted into bombs. During the enrichment process, the uranium is stored as a gas. It needs to be separated and converted into metal in order to make components for a nuclear device. Iran had a covert program to research such a weapon in the early 2000s, but it has never built a nuclear weapon before, and has said publicly it has no intentions to pursue one.
The Natanz facility has been at the center of Iran’s nuclear program for decades. According to the IAEA, which has been monitoring activities at the site for the past several years, Iran has recently been using thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium to 60%, far above the levels normally used in civilian nuclear reactors. The agency says that Iran has stockpiled more than 400 kilograms of the highly enriched material, enough by some estimates to quickly build around 10 nuclear weapons.
“I have repeatedly said that nuclear facilities must not be attacked,” Grossi said at the board of governors meeting.
The attack at the Natanz plant caused damage, but no radioactive or chemical contamination was spilled, according to a statement from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
By Friday afternoon, there were additional reports of Israeli strikes near Iran’s other main enrichment facility at Fordow, and at Isfahan, which is also home to a nuclear research complex. The strikes that took place during the second night of fighting were not known at this time.
The Israeli strikes killed top Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists ahead of planned negotiations in Oman on Sunday aimed at addressing international concerns over Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
Air raid sirens sounded in Jordan with announcements from mosques advising Jordanians to seek shelter. The government of Jordan, which neighbors Israel, said it had intercepted several missiles and drones overflying the country Friday morning.
Iran says it killed 9 Iranian nuclear scientists, and braces for attacks from Iran — a U.S. diplomatic response to Israel’s nuclear program
Iran has been found to be in violation of the Non-Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran’s program is for peaceful purposes.
The alternative to a deal on the nuclear program would be much worse than what they were told, said Trump, while giving the nation a chance to make a deal.
Two months ago I gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to make a deal. They should have done it!” He wrote on a social networking site. “Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!”
On Saturday, the Omani foreign minister stated on social media that the meeting had been canceled. But he said “diplomacy and dialogue remain the only pathway to lasting peace.”
The U.S. and Iran were planning to begin the sixth round of talks about Iran’s nuclear program on Sunday in Oman. The U.S. was trying to iron out a deal with Iran to limit its enrichment of gold in exchange for lifting sanctions, which have crippled the Iranian economy.
The Israeli military said the scientists’ death was a significant blow to Iran’s ability to pursue weapons of mass destruction.
The sirens blared late Friday and the smoke billowed into the air as people fled for shelter after Iran launched hundreds of missiles at Israel.
Source: Israel says it killed 9 Iranian nuclear scientists, and braces for attacks from Iran
U.S. air attacks on Iran: the most dangerous in the world, and Iran’s Defense Minister vows to strike again after the killing of the Hezbollah leader in Lebanon
The escalation has raised fears that a regional conflict could affect countries in the same region and affect the global energy markets.
A U.S. official confirmed to NPR that U.S. ground-based air defense systems helped shoot down the Iranian missiles targeted at Israel. The U.S. official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador accused Israel of seeking to kill diplomacy and said the country is the most dangerous in the world. He urged the Security Council to hold Israel accountable.
Iravani said 78 people were killed and over 320 people — mostly civilians — were injured. Iran’s state television reported that a residential building in Tehran was also hit, and the death toll was expected to rise.
Israeli emergency services organization Magen David Adom said three people were killed and dozens more injured. According to the Red Crescent, children were among the Palestinians injured in the occupied West Bank.
The Times of Israel reported that Israel’s Defense Minister said that Iran “crossed red lines” by firing missiles at civilian population concentrations, and that it would pay a heavy price.
In a video statement on Friday evening, the Prime Minister said that he was planning a strike on Iran for months, after the assassination of the Hezbollah leader in Lebanon.
