Israeli air strikes damaged a military base linked to Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons programme on Saturday, satellite images show.
The attack appears to have hit a ballistic missile site in Parchin, where it is suspected Iran has previously conducted tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon.
Photographs taken on Sunday morning by satellite firm Planet Labs also showed that an Israeli strike destroyed two buildings at the nearby Khojir base, where analysts believe solid fuel for ballistic missiles was mixed.
Israel did not target Iran’s nuclear facilities or oil refineries, after pressure from US and other Western countries. The eventual choice of targets is probably designed to send a message to Tehran about Israel’s military capabilities and intelligence-gathering.
David Albright, a former UN inspector and head of the Institute for Science and International Security, was the first to identify the damage to the bases. He confirmed that one of the buildings hit in Parchin, Taleghan 2, was formerly used for nuclear testing.
Iran has long insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful, although the UN’s nuclear watchdog and Western intelligence agencies say Tehran had an active weapons programme up until 2003.
Mr Albright was given access to files about the programme by Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, in 2018. He said that Iran still kept important test equipment in Taleghan 2.
Even if Iran had removed key materials before the air strike, the building would have provided “intrinsic value” for future nuclear weapons-related activities, Mr Albright added.
Ronen Solomon, an Israeli defence analyst, said the former nuclear site was still a critical part of Iran’s nuclear supply chain.
“The [Israeli] idea is to cut the supply of ballistic missiles to use against Israel, and in the end to prevent Iran building a nuclear warhead,” he said.
Mr Solomon said the attack allowed Israel to bypass a veto from the West and Iran on hitting Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, such as Natanz. “This isn’t a nuclear facility, as Iran… called it a military facility, so that gave Israel a green light to attack it.”
He added: “Israel couldn’t target the enrichment, so it targeted the integration of the missile and the trigger of the bomb for the head of the missile, which is being tested at Taleghan 2.”
Iran’s military has not acknowledged damage at either Khojir or Parchin from Israel’s attack early on Saturday, although it has said the assault killed four Iranian soldiers working in the country’s air-defence systems.
Rafael Grossi, the UN’s nuclear chief, confirmed on social media: “Iran’s nuclear facilities have not been impacted.”
Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said the satellite imagery was crucial to understanding the true scale of damage from the strikes.
“It shows you that just because they didn’t destroy all of the regime’s military capabilities, doesn’t mean the strike was ineffective,” he said.
He added: “The strike makes the regime more vulnerable over time, and shows the Israelis can have greater depth in the future.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, appeared unusually moderate in his comments on Sunday, saying the attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed”.
Joe Biden said the strikes appeared to have only hit military targets, as he joined a growing chorus of other leaders by saying he hoped the attacks would be the end of the cycle of confrontation between Iran and Israel.
At a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu called the latest strike on Iran “precise and powerful, achieving all its objectives”.
The Israeli prime minister added: “Iran attacked Israel with hundreds of ballistic missiles and this attack failed… We kept our promise. The air force attacked Iran and hit Iran’s defence capabilities and missile production.”
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