Iran expands military drills to two more nuclear sites in country’s west and center
Army and paramilitary Revolutionary Guard exercises, initially focused on Natanz enrichment plant, now held at Fordo and Khondab nuclear facilities, state media reports
Iran has expanded military drills to cover two additional nuclear facilities in the west and center of the country, state media reported on Sunday.
The drills — dubbed Eqtedar, or “might” in Farsi — began last week and are set to continue until mid-March. They involve the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the ideological branch of Iran’s military.
On Tuesday, the IRGC announced the drills were initially focused on the Natanz nuclear enrichment plant in central Iran.
“The exercises are currently being held at the Fordo and Khondab nuclear facilities,” in central and western Iran respectively, state TV reported Sunday.
They involve missile and radar units, electronic warfare units, electronic intelligence and reconnaissance command carrying out “offensive and defensive missions,” it said.
The drills come after, at the end of October, Israel attacked key military targets in Iran, degrading its air defense and missile production capabilities in retaliation for a massive ballistic missile attack from Tehran on Israel earlier that month.
Iran’s new activities are taking place with the country’s nuclear program under close watch ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
In his first term, Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, and he also ordered the killing of an IRGC general in a drone strike in Iraq.
Iran is set to hold nuclear talks with France, Britain and Germany on Monday in Switzerland.
In January, US news website Axios reported that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan had presented President Joe Biden with options for a potential US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if Tehran moved toward developing an atomic weapon before January 20, when Trump takes office.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei criticized the reports, saying threats against the country’s nuclear facilities were “a gross violation of international law.”
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop atomic weapons.
However, Iran, which is sworn to destroy Israel, has in recent years increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium, and it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60 percent, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said.
That level is well on the way to the 90% required for an atomic bomb and beyond anything needed for a civilian nuclear program.
