Located just over 400 kilometers south of Tehran, its air bases, nuclear facilities and drone factories are the spearhead of the military complex that houses Isfahan, which has made it the target of Israeli attacks this morning.
General Siavosh Mihandoost, a local army commander, told state television that the incident “has not caused damage” around Isfahan, nor in the atomic centers, nor in the military enclaves, the most valuable points of Isfahan for the regime of the ayatollahs.
The nuclear plant, northeast of the city of Isfahan, was inaugurated in 1984 with help from China, and currently represents the largest nuclear facility in Iran, employing some 3,000 scientists. The plant currently operates with three reactors supplied by China, but, as the Iranian regime announced in February, construction has begun on a fourth “research reactor” for a variety of applications, including testing nuclear fuel and materials, as well as such as the production of radioisotopes and industrial radiopharmaceuticals.
Years after having the nuclear facility, in 1999, Iran began construction of the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Isfahan based on design information provided by China. Tehran received the necessary documents and information before China canceled the contract to build two UCFs in Iran under intense diplomatic pressure from the United States. Still, construction took place, finishing the process in 2004, and beginning uranium enrichment production a year later.
Isfahan province is also the scene of locations associated with the Iranian nuclear program, including an underground enrichment base, Natanz – 100km from the city of Isfahan – which has been repeatedly targeted by alleged Israeli sabotage attacks. In order to protect the UCF and other facilities related to nuclear energy from air attacks, Tehran has deployed several batteries of anti-aircraft missiles around Isfahan, with which it has intercepted the alleged drones of the Israeli attack this morning.
Although Tehran insists that its program is for peaceful purposes, the lack of transparency in the ayatollahs’ plans for the activity carried out in Isfahan makes the province the epicenter of international suspicions about Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program and uranium enrichment. The international community speculates about the country’s possible intention to ultimately build nuclear weapons.
Regarding the military capacity of the Isfahan air base, after more than 40 years of international sanctions, it has an aging fleet of American-made F-14 Tomcats, acquired before the Islamic revolution of 1979.
Equally important are Iran’s weapons production facilities spread across Isfahan province. Early last year an attack, attributed to Israel, was launched against what was supposedly an advanced weapons production facility in the city, which, like the attack this morning, involved three drones.
