Israeli airstrikes hit multiple Iran nuclear sites. Here’s what we know about them.

Israeli soldiers have targeted Iranian nuclear installations, higher military researchers and commanders Dozens of preventive air strikes Early Friday morning in what he nicknamed “Rising Lion Operation.“”

The strikes – which, according to Israeli defense forces, included the abolition of “more than 330 different ammunition” on more than 100 Targets in Iran – Iran Iran at launch about 100 missiles In Israel during a reprisal attack later Friday. The FDI said that its Iron Dome anti-missile defense system had intercepted most of the missiles, and US officials have confirmed that the United States has helped Israel intercept Iranian missiles.

TDS Brig spokesperson. General Effie Defrin said that information has shown that “the Iranian regime has made significant progress in carrying out nuclear capacities and its ability to act against us”, calling it a emerging and existential threat to Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was not involved in Israel’s air strikes on Iran.

The attacks occurred one day after the board of directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency censored Iran for the first time in 20 years for not having worked with its inspectors. Iran immediately announced that it would establish a third enrichment site in the country and exchange certain centrifuges for more advanced centrifuges.

The IAEA is the nuclear guard dog based in the United Nations. He said in a confidential report last month The fact that Iran has further increased its stock of uranium enriched at levels close to the quality of weapons, and called Tehran to change urgently and to comply with the agency’s investigation.

Friday, President Trump urged Iran “Conclude an agreement, before it remains” and accept new restrictions on its nuclear program Although he can still. The president previously declared that Iran could not be authorized to enrich uranium, a term that Iran was not willing to accept. Steve Witkoff, the envoy of the president of the Middle East, was to hold a sixth round of talks with Iran in the state of the Gulf of Oman on Sunday.

Here is an overview of some large Iranian sites and their importance in the Tehran program.

Natanz enrichment installation

The Iranian nuclear installation of Natanz, located about 135 miles south-east of Tehran, is the main site of enrichment in the country.

Part of the installation on the Iranian central plateau is underground to defend itself against potential air strikes. It uses several waterfalls, or centrifugal groups working together to enrich uranium more quickly.

Iran is also digging in the freshness a day of gazeOr Pickax Mountain, which is just beyond the southern fencing of Natanz. Natanz was targeted by the Stoxnet IT virus, considered an Israeli and American creation, which destroyed the Iranian centrifuges. Two separate sabotage attacks, attributed to Israel, also struck the installation.

In Testimony Friday before the UN About the strikes of Israel, the director general of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said that Iran had confirmed that its Natanz Fuel enrichment factory had been attacked. He said that the factory’s grounds where Iran produced uranium enriched up to 60% had “been destroyed” and that centrifugal could have been damaged. He said Iranian authorities also reported attacks on the Fordow Fuel enrichment factory and Esfahan site.

Fordo enrichment installation

The Iranian nuclear installation in Fordo is located about 60 miles southwest of Tehran. It also hosts centrifuge waterfalls, but is not a large installation that Natanz.

Buried under a mountain and protected by anti -aircraft batteries, Fordo seems designed to withstand air strikes.

Its construction began at least in 2007, according to the IAEA, although Iran only informed the United Nations nuclear guard dog on the installation in 2009 after the United States and the Western intelligence agencies allied became aware of its existence.

Bushehr nuclear power plant

The only commercial nuclear power plant in Iran is in Bushehr On the Persian Gulf, about 465 miles south of Tehran. The construction of the factory began under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in ​​Iran in the mid-1970s. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the plant was targeted several times in the Iran-Iraq war. Russia then completed the construction of the installation.

Iran builds two other reactors like this on the site. Bushehr is powered by uranium produced in Russia, not in Iran, and is monitored by the AIAA.

Arak heavy water reactor

The Arak Heavy Water Reactor is 155 miles southwest of Tehran. Heavy water helps to cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a by-product that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. This would provide Iran with another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, if he chose to continue the weapon. Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear agreement with the global powers to rethink the installation to relieve proliferation problems.

The United States retire From the International Nuclear Agreement known as JCPOA, or Complete Complete Action Plan, in 2018, and Iran partially withdrew in 2019.

Isfahan nuclear technology center

The installation of Isfahan, about 215 miles southeast of Tehran, employs thousands of nuclear scientists. It also houses three Chinese research reactors and laboratories associated with the country’s atomic program.

Tehran Research Reactor

The Tehran’s research reactor is at the headquarters of the Iran’s atomic energy organization, the civil organization supervising the country’s atomic program. The United States actually provided Iran the reactor in 1967 as part of the “Atoms for Peace” program in America during the Cold War. It initially required highly enriched uranium, but was then modernized to use low -enrichment uranium to proliferation problems.

Kathryn Watson,,

Melissa Quinn And

Margaret Brennan

contributed to this report.