Vienna: On Friday, several new pictures popped up from the satellite that Iran has begun the construction of underground nuclear facility at Fordo. All these insights are taking place amid the tensions between US and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Although Iran has not publicly acknowledged the fact of the construction in Fordo, but whose discovery by the West in 2009 came in an earlier round of brinkmanship before world powers struck the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. Since the function of the building remains a mystery any further work would obviously accelerate concerns and misconceptions in the final days of Trump’s administration before Biden’s inauguration.
Already, Iran is building at its Natanz nuclear facility after a mysterious explosion in July there that Tehran described as a sabotage attack. “Any changes at this site will be carefully watched as a sign of where Iran’s nuclear program is headed," said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who studies Iran.
Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The International Atomic Energy Agency, whose inspectors are in Iran as part of the nuclear deal, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The IAEA as of yet has not publicly disclosed if Iran informed it of any construction at Fordo. Construction on the Fordo site began in late September. Satellite images from Maxar Technologies showing the construction taking place at a north-west corner of the site, near the holy Shia city of Qom some 90 kilometres south-west of Tehran, said The Associated Press.