Israel has not struck the Iranian secret nuclear nuclear facility so far. This is why it might be.

Iran has two known sites for the underground nuclear enrichment site. He attacked Israel on The first day of its attack in NathanzAnd another in Fordo. Both sit southern Tehran in central Iran, but Fordo has long been the Iranian nuclear facility of interest to international screens and experts.

He was buried in the depths of the mountain, as many analysts believe that Iran has hidden secret efforts to work on the possibility of nuclear weapons. Israeli strikes were not reported in the Fordo enrichment facility

Recently, in March, the American Director of National Intelligence, Toulcy Gabbard, said that US intelligence agencies do not believe that Iran was building a nuclear weapon, but the Israeli army confirmed hours after its attack on Iran began last week that American information was old, claiming that Iran was “leaking towards a nuclear bomb.”

On Friday, the Israeli Defense Forces spokesman, Brigadier -General Ivy Defern, claimed that the country has intelligence indicating that the Iranian regime “established a secret program, as senior nuclear scientists in Iran secretly conducted the experiments required to build nuclear weapons.”

Speaking to reporters early on Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump seemed to have been affected. When asked about the evaluation that Gabbard was delivered in March, he said: “I don’t care what she said. I think they were about to get it.”

Iran’s leaders have always denied any interest in building a nuclear weapon, and they insist that the program is for civil purposes. But if this is the expression, as Israel insists, and the Iranians are approaching the ability of nuclear weapons, more than a decade of analyzing Iranian nuclear installations by experts all over the world indicates that Fordo will be the central of these efforts.

Why is Fordo’s nuclear site in Iran considered such anxiety?

Two experts told CBS News in 2012 – the last time Netanyahu seemed close to attacking Iranian nuclear facilities – that Fordo, who was buried about 300 feet under a mountain and protected from important air defenses, was the most likely site for the virtual nuclear weapons program.

Fordo “is clear that in order to hedge nuclear weapons, to maintain centrifugal devices in the event of an attack” on other weak facilities, Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert in the London -based Iranian nuclear program International Institute for Strategic StudiesTell CBS News in 2012.

Israel attacked the only known nuclear facility that revolves around large facilities from enriching uranium in Iran last week, causing damage to Natanz.

But the progress made in Fordo even at that point, before the average nuclear deal in the United States with Iran put the UN inspectors to the country, and since Mr. Trump removed the United States from this agreement during his first time, which prompted the escalation of Iran’s efforts, remained unjust.

The United Nations International Nuclear Energy Agency Agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has announced that Iran is not compatible with the first time monitoring efforts in 20 years, just hours before the Israeli attack. The lack of an understanding of Iran’s work in the facility has long been a source of concern for a long time, but those concerns have been left in recent years, because the American withdrawal from the nuclear deal prompted Iran to reduce cooperation with international inspectors and increase its enrichment.

In late 2023, Manuel Herrera, an expert in weapons other than spreading with two different European tanks, said Fordo remains “One of the main concerns related to Iran. “

“Fordo has always been a great concern because of its location and because of its size,” Herrera He said during a discussion With his colleague, Iranian expert, William Albrek, from the International Institute for Strategic Studies. We all knew from the beginning that Fordo was a site aimed at enriching uranium for weapons, because of its size, due to its technical ability. And … that the Iranians were saving this site and also expanding the in stock of enriched uranium on this site, it should be a source of concern for us, because in reality, we do not have a lot of transparency about what is going on there. “

“In contrast to Natanz who is on the ground, Fordo is underground – it is a facility with a tunnel structure.”

In addition to its well -loaded location and structure, Herrera said, “It was always supposed to be a manufacturer for military purposes” due to the mechanism on the site.

He pointed out that the Iranian regime He had boasted in 2019 From the advanced “IR-6” centrifugal installation in Fordo, capable of enriching uranium to purity levels is much faster than most of its old equipment. In early 2023, The International Atomic Energy Agency said The uranium molecules in Fordo have found fertilized of approximately 84 % purity, which is incredibly close to the 90 % purity uranium, which will be required for a nuclear weapon.

“This tells us that at least the Iranians try this type of enriched level in uranium,” Herrera said.