The Israeli military has announced strikes against the central facilities of Iran’s nuclear programme, hitting important sites in the cities of Arak and Yazd in a major escalation of Israel’s operations against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The Israeli Army has confirmed that it attacked a factory in the city of Yazd that produces explosive components for uranium enrichment – a key component of the nuclear fuel cycle.
The destruction of the facility in the city of Yazd, if true, will be a blow to Iran’s ability to enrich uranium on a large scale. In the city of Arak, Israel has attacked what it says are the central facilities of Iran’s nuclear programme. The facilities in the city of Arak have for decades been a cause of concern for the international community. The city is home to Iran’s IR-40 heavy water reactor, which produces plutonium – a material that has the potential to produce weapons-grade material.
Despite the fact that the reactor was partially disabled by the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement, whereby it was filled with concrete, there are still many facilities related to nuclear activities at the site. The strikes against Arak and Yazd are a continuation of the increasingly aggressive strikes by Israel against Iran’s nuclear facilities throughout the conflict. Other strikes have already targeted a heavy water reactor and a uranium processing facility in the center of Iran, with strikes also hitting facilities near the Bushehr nuclear power plant as recently as this week, according to the IAEA.
Israel has set the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program as a key goal of the conflict and has justified each of the strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities as a measure to prevent Iran from utilizing its capabilities while engaged in conflict.