Iran’s military expands drills to Fordo, Khondab nuclear sites

Iran has expanded military drills to cover two additional nuclear facilities in the west and center of the country, state media reports.

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 reports today.

They involve missile and radar units, electronic warfare units, electronic intelligence and reconnaissance command carrying out “offensive and defensive missions,” it says.

The military activities are taking place with Iran’s nuclear program under close watch ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Last week it was reported Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer left a November meeting with Trump believing that Trump would support an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities or direct a US strike on those sites himself.

In his first term, Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, and he also ordered the killing of a IRGC general in a drone strike in Iraq.

Iran is set to hold nuclear talks with France, Britain and Germany tomorrow in Switzerland.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop atomic weapons.

Iran 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 says.

That level is well on the way to the 90 percent required for an atomic bomb.