Israel ‘destroyed nuclear facilities’ in Iran strikes: report

Israel hit and destroyed a nuclear facility in Iran during a series of air strikes in October causing widespread damage to sophisticated equipment, according to a new report.

Israeli forces targeted the Taleghan 2 facility near Tehran during the 25 October attacks causing the building located inside the Parchin military complex to collapse, sources told Axios.

Taleghan 2 was part of an alleged Iranian military nuclear programme until it was frozen in 2003, with Tehran claiming that the site has been inactive since then.

Israeli and US officials claimed that activity had restarted at the facility earlier this year, including modeling, metallurgy and explosive research, all of which could contribute toward the development of a nuclear weapon, Axios reported.

“They conducted scientific activity that could lay the ground for the production of a nuclear weapon,” a US official told the news site.

“It was a top-secret thing. A small part of the Iranian government knew about this, but most of the Iranian government didn’t.”

Last June, White House officials privately warned Iran in direct conversations about the suspicious research activities, according to Axios.

The US hoped the warning would make Iran stop their nuclear activity, but they continued, the sources said.

A US official said that in the months before the Israeli attack “there was concern across the board” about the Iranian activity at the Taleghan 2 facility.

The Iranian nuclear weapons research even led the US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to change its assessment about the Iranian nuclear program.     

In August, The Wall Street Journal reported that a DNI report to Congress omitted a sentence that had appeared in intelligence assessments in recent years, which said Iran “is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities necessary to produce a testable nuclear device.”

Last month, when Israel prepared targets for its attack on Iran, Taleghan 2 was included. According to numerous reports, the Biden administration stopped Israel from targeting Iranian nuclear sites. 

However, Taleghan 2 is not considered part of the declared Iranian nuclear programme, meaning Tehran could not admit that the facility was hit.

The news of the attack comes as the incoming second Trump administration is set to include several key national security and foreign policy officials who are hawkish on Iran, which could lead to increased pressure from Washington on the Islamic Republic.

However, during the visit of the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, to two Iranian nuclear sites on Friday, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said that while the Tehran is willing to resolve outstanding disputes over its nuclear programme but won’t succumb to pressure.

Relations between Tehran and the IAEA have soured over several long-standing issues including Iran barring the agency’s uranium-enrichment experts from the country and its failure to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.

“The ball is in the EU/E3 court,” Araqchi wrote on X following talks in Tehran with Grossi on Thursday, referring to three European countries – France, Britain and Germany – which represent the West alongside the US at nuclear talks.

“Willing to negotiate based on our national interest and inalienable rights, but not ready to negotiate under pressure and intimidation,” Araqchi said.

Trump’s return to office as US president in January upends nuclear diplomacy with Iran, which had stalled under the outgoing administration of Joe Biden after months of indirect talks.

During Trump’s previous tenure, Washington ditched a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers that curbed Tehran’s nuclear work in exchange for relief from international sanctions.