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A new report from a leading think tank has revealed what it says is a partially submerged Iranian uranium facility at the Natanz nuclear compound in Iran.
The revelation of the secretive facility raises new concerns over whether Iran’s nuclear weapons apparatus was destroyed during the two American-Israeli-launched wars against the regime in 2025 and 2026.
The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) announced in late August that it has located an underground Iranian facility that is likely linked to uranium enrichment for the possible use in production of atomic weapons.
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It wrote that “The facility does not appear to have been targeted in the military actions of either 2025 or 2026. Since the June 2025 war, no vehicle activity has been observed at the facility in available satellite imagery.”
According to the institute, “The Institute has identified a separately enclosed, partially below-ground, bunkered building at the Natanz Nuclear Complex that was likely intended to serve as uranium hexafluoride… storage facility to support large-scale uranium enrichment at the Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant. The bunkered structure was constructed between 2010 and 2017, with the bulk of construction occurring between 2015 and 2017.”
It further added that “The lesson for today is that any temporary enrichment ban must include a dismantlement and dissolution of remaining capabilities and must not allow for any type of preparatory activity for the end of a ban.”
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Uranium is the crucial material to produce atomic weapons. Iran’s regime is vehemently opposed to the Trump administration’s demands that it stop enriching uranium and hand over its already enriched uranium.
According to another report by the Institute for Science and International Security in April,” From December 2024 to June 2025, a half-year period, Iran almost doubled its stock of 60% enriched uranium to 440 kilograms. This action dramatically increased suspicion that Iran was moving toward a decision to build nuclear weapons, significantly shortening timelines to be able to create a nuclear arsenal with up to ten nuclear weapons.”
The U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s vast nuclear weapons facility during Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025 significantly set back Iran’s ability to produce atomic weapons and enrich uranium.
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Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News Digital that “The report assesses the structure at the Natanz nuclear facility was not targeted during Operations Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury. This raises questions as to why the U.S. and Israel did not target the site. Given that Iran is not allowing IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspections of bombed facilities, in contravention of its NPT [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons]obligations, this will require Washington and Jerusalem to rely on their own intelligence estimates as to this bunkered building.”
Brodsky added, “If it is still intact and can accommodate this kind of enrichment activity, the site should be destroyed in any future strikes. The allowance of such a facility under the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] demonstrates the flaws of the agreement — permitting Iran to retain an industrial scale enrichment program following the sunsets of various provisions — and underscores why zero enrichment in Iran has to continue to be the international demand.”
When asked about the facility and if the IAEA plans to inspect it, Fredrik Dahl, a spokesman for the IAEA, told Fox News Digital, that “The building you are referring to is well-known to the Agency as part of the Natanz site that the IAEA regularly inspected prior to mid-2025.”
Asked about the report, Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, told Fox News Digital that “First, Iran’s nuclear facilities were totally obliterated during Operation Midnight Hammer. Now, Operation Economic Outcast is severing every remaining economic lifeline sustaining the Islamic Republic of Iran. President Trump has been clear that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon, and America is entering the endgame with the single greatest financial offensive ever mounted against an adversary.”
Successive U.S. administrations have repeatedly designated the Islamic Republic of Iran since the 1980s as a leading state-sponsor of terrorism.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s announcement last week that the U.S. imposed the economic equivalent of the military campaign that defeated Nazi Germany on the Islamic Republic of Iran could set off a series of events leading to the dissolution of the nearly 47-year-old dictatorship in Tehran, according to experts.
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Bessent’s declaration of economic warfare — formally designated Operation Economic Outcast — follows President Trump’s commitment to launch an “economic D-Day” against the clerical regime. The comprehensive U.S. economic pressure point campaign also aims to isolate the regime with respect to its efforts to rebuild its nuclear weapons facility.
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