A satellite image shows the aftermath of what an American researcher said was an Israeli airstrike on the Parchin rocket motor casting facility, part of Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons program, near Tehran, Oct. 26, 2024. (Planet Labs via Reuters)
VOICE OF AMERICA | Published December 6, 2024
Washington — New satellite imagery of an Iranian military site that Israel apparently destroyed in October and that some Western analysts said was a nuclear facility shows that Iran made efforts to conceal the debris. Those efforts indicate the site contained something of value, the analysts told VOA.
The commercial satellite images from Maxar Technologies published Monday on the X platform by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security show the destroyed building known as Taleghan 2 at Iran’s Parchin military base on November 6 and November 24.
An archive of Iranian nuclear documents seized by Israel from Tehran in 2018 and later shared by Israel with the institute included what the group has said were pre-2004 images of Taleghan 2, showing the building housing equipment used in nuclear weapons research.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said Iran suspended an active nuclear weapons program in 2003. Iran has denied Israel’s allegation that it has covertly continued that program.
Israel apparently struck Taleghan 2 in its October 26 aerial assault on Iran, according to Western media citing researchers who examined before-and-after commercial satellite images of the rectangular building, which had been built in a carved-out section of hillside.
The new images published by the institute show that by November 6, Iran had covered the demolished building with a makeshift horizontal structure and erected vertical security screens next to debris piles, shielding the site from being viewed from above and on the ground.
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SOURCE: www.voanews.com
RELATED: IDF strikes Syrian chemical weapons factory, places tanks at buffer zone
IMAGE:
The Syrian area of Quneitra is seen in the background as an out-of-commission Israeli tank parks on a hill, near the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria, in the Golan Heights.
(photo credit: BAZ RATNER/REUTERS)
JERUSALEM POST | Published December 8, 2024
Earlier, the military noted that it had decided to reinforce troops for defense purposes throughout the Golan Heights region bordering Syria.
The IDF struck a chemical weapons factory belonging to the regime of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to prevent the rebels from seizing it, Arab media first reported on Sunday, and The Jerusalem Post later independently confirmed.
In addition, IDF sources responded about whether the air force had attacked Syrian chemical weapons, saying that the military follows developments that could endanger Israel and takes the necessary steps to attack any such dangerous threats.
Israel’s position has always been to avoid conflict with Syria where possible but not to permit dangerous developments regarding advanced weapons, and it has carried out thousands of air strikes within Syria – usually only admitting to a small number of specific strikes – dating back over a decade since Syria’s civil war started.
For example, it would be against Israeli interests for chemical weapons to fall into the hands of unpredictable actors, such as some of the more jihadist rebel groups.
These attacks increased in recent months after the IDF decapitated much of Hezbollah’s leadership and started to also eliminate significant Hezbollah and Iranian interests in Syria.
In addition, the IDF confirmed it had crossed slightly into Syria to position forces at a demilitarized buffer zone along the border with Syria and at several other points of significance for defense.
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SOURCE: www.m.jpost.com
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