Middle East
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Edited by: Ananya Varma
Updated Jun 14, 2025, 13:18 IST
In an unexpected move, Israel initiated 'Operation Rising Lion,' targeting Iran's nuclear facilities, particularly the Natanz enrichment site. Here's more about these sites.
In this photo released by the Iranian Red Crescent Society rescuers work at the scene of an explosion after an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (Iranian Red Crescent Society via AP)
In a surprise move early Friday, Israel launched 'Operation Rising Lion,' striking at the heart of Iran's nuclear program, including its main enrichment facility in Natanz. Israeli Prime Minister Iranian threat to Israel's very survival."
Israel has time and again expressed mounting concerns over Tehran's nuclear program, which it perceives as a threat to its existence. And the attack came a day after the Board of Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for the first time in 20 years, censured Iran on Thursday over it not working with its inspectors.
Iran is said to have accumulated large amounts of highly enriched uranium. A third of which was enriched and accumulated in the last three months alone - a drastic increase of production volume. This action was conducted in parallel with the US negotiations. The United States and Iran had been in talks that could have resulted in America lifting some of its crushing economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran drastically limiting or ending its enrichment of uranium.
However, it is believed Iran is only moments away from a nuclear weapon, and the Iranian nuclear program may have military objectives. After the IAEA's move, Iran immediately announced it would establish a third enrichment site in the country and swap out some centrifuges for more-advanced ones. But Israel had already struck.
Here's all about the nuclear facilities in Iran that are under scrutiny.
Natanz Enrichment Facility
Iran's nuclear facility at Natanz, located some 220 kilometers (135 miles) southeast of Tehran, is the country's main enrichment site, which had been targeted by Israel. Part of the facility on Iran's Central Plateau is underground to defend against potential airstrikes. It operates multiple cascades, or groups of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uranium, AP reported.
Iran also is burrowing into the Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, or Pickax Mountain, which is just beyond Natanz's southern fencing. Natanz has been targeted by the Stuxnet virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation, which destroyed Iranian centrifuges. Two separate sabotage attacks, attributed to Israel, also have struck the facility.
Fordo Enrichment Facility
Iran's nuclear facility at Fordo is located some 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of Tehran. It also hosts centrifuge cascades, but isn't as big a facility as Natanz. Buried under a mountain and protected by anti-aircraft batteries, Fordo appears designed to withstand airstrikes.
Its construction began at least in 2007, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, although Iran only informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog about the facility in 2009 after the US and allied Western intelligence agencies became aware of its existence, according to the report.
Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant
Iran's only commercial nuclear power plant is in Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, some 750 kilometres (465 miles) south of Tehran, according to AP. Construction on the plant began under Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the mid-1970s. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the plant was repeatedly targeted in the Iran-Iraq War. Russia later completed construction of the facility.
Iran is building two other reactors like it at the site. Bushehr is fueled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency.
Arak Heavy Water Reactor
The Arak heavy water reactor is 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of Tehran. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons, the agency said. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon. Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to relieve proliferation concerns.Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre
The facility in Isfahan, some 350 kilometres (215 miles) southeast of Tehran, employs thousands of nuclear scientists. It also is home to three Chinese research reactors and laboratories associated with the country's atomic program.Tehran Research Reactor
The Tehran Research Reactor is at the headquarters of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, the civilian body overseeing the country's atomic program. The US actually provided Iran the reactor in 1967 as part of America's "Atoms for Peace" program during the Cold War. It initially required highly enriched uranium but was later retrofitted to use low-enriched uranium over proliferation concerns.
(With AP inputs)
Ananya Varma author
Ananya Varma is a journalist who loves chasing stories almost as much as they love chasing daydreams. Writing has always been their first love, a way ...View More
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