After yesterday’s US attack on Iran, US president Donald Trump was quick to report that the three nuclear sites at Esfahan, Natanz and Fordow had been “completely and totally obliterated”. Similar messages, using less sensational language, were issued by other parts of his administration.
Israel’s decision this morning to carry out a further strike on Fordow – Iran’s most important uranium enrichment facility – exposes that Trump’s claims of destroying the underground plant were likely untrue.
Even if the US and Israel do succeed in wiping out the facility, it is unlikely to put an end to Iran’s nuclear aims. Satellite imagery from Fordow, which has been released by a US defence contractor, appears to show many large cargo trucks leaving the facility in the days before the attacks, quite possibly to transfer enriched uranium to sites elsewhere in Iran.
