{"id":580589,"date":"2026-02-10T20:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/580589\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:04:11","slug":"iranian-movement-at-nuclear-site-suggests-looming-us-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/580589\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian movement at nuclear site suggests looming US strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Islamic Republic is likely preparing for the possibility of a US strike, experts told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday after reviewing high-resolution Sunday satellite images of the Isfahan nuclear complex<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Center and southern entrances to the nuclear facility have been covered with earth, and the northernmost tunnel entrance, which features additional passive defensive measures, has also been backfilled with soil, the images revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBackfilling the tunnel entrances would help dampen any potential airstrike and also make ground access in a special forces raid to seize or destroy any highly enriched uranium that may be housed inside, or the more difficult,\u201d the Institute of Science and International Security said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreparations like these were last observed in the days before Operation Midnight Hammer struck facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe late January and early February 2026 activity around the Isfahan nuclear complex is likely part of a larger push to create defensive layers to the Islamic Republic\u2019s nuclear and ballistic missile facilities in anticipation of a possible US strike,\u201d Jonathan Hackett, a former US Marine Corps veteran, told the Post.<\/p>\n

He served for 20 years, specializing in counterintelligence with affiliations to the US National Security Agency, the US Defense Intelligence Agency, and special operations units.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile engineering units were backfilling these tunnels in Isfahan, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was similarly surging to protect ballistic missile sites,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn January 31, 2026, specialized IRGC <\/a>Ground Forces units deployed around the country to provide additional security at strategic missile facilities critical to Iran\u2019s defense-in-depth against a US attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IranianIranian parliament members chant in support of the IRGC while wearing military uniforms in Tehran, Iran, February 1, 2026. (credit: Hamed Malekpour\/Islamic consultative assembly news agency\/WANA (West Asia News Agency)\/Handout via )Tehran and Washington hold talks as tension rises<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hackett said that the distribution of forces was part of Iran\u2019s two-decade-old strategy called \u201cthe Mosaic Doctrine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IRGC\u2019s Ground Forces and Aerospace Forces work together to secure the physical infrastructure the regime needs to transport, store, and protect short- and medium-range ballistic missiles at sites throughout the country that would be used against regional targets in the event of a US attack against Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tehran and Washington<\/a> held indirect talks last week as tensions have been mounting over the Islamic Republic\u2019s nuclear ambitions and its brutal crackdown on protests, which have seen tens of thousands murdered across Iran and widespread human rights violations.<\/p>\n

While some Iranian officials have said that Iran could agree to dilute its stockpile of 60% enriched uranium in exchange for the lifting of all sanctions imposed against its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi previously insisted that a complete halt to uranium enrichment is absolutely unacceptable to Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discussions should focus on scenarios in which uranium enrichment continues, alongside assurances that the enrichment is solely for peaceful purposes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lynette Nusbacher, a former British Army intelligence officer and one of the architects behind two of the UK\u2019s National Security Strategies, pertaining to Britain\u2019s National Security Secretariat, told the Post that the movement around the Isfahan site was likely meant as a message connected to the latest talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran is protecting these facilities in ways that are observable from satellites,\u201d Nusbacher said. \u201cIt is certainly easier to get a couple of bulldozers to clear the entrances than it is to rebuild the place after a Tomahawk or a Massive Ordnance Pentetrator turns these facilities into craters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that Iran\u2019s national security people have clearly assessed, perhaps in light of last week\u2019s face-to-face discussions between Iran\u2019s foreign minister and the American envoys, that they are being told either to give up their nuclear program or have it destroyed by American forces,\u201d Nusbacher continued.<\/p>\n

The only solution to Iran’s nuclear ambitions is for its people to establish a new government<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Tehran is conveying a message, Nusbacher said, Washington is \u201cin the process of rather theatrically demonstrating a readiness and even an eagerness to attack Iran, including regime targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis buildup is, in my view, designed to shape Iran\u2019s participation in talks with [US President Donald] Trump\u2019s envoys on the future of its nuclear program,\u201d the doctor said.<\/p>\n

Still, it is also \u201ca signal that the United States might be ready to make a far more committed set of attacks against Iranian nuclear targets than they did last year. This is particularly so because last year\u2019s attacks, whatever their intent, appear not to have had a decisive effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting that Tehran has previously agreed not to pursue nuclear weapons, and denied the existence of its ambitions while continuing to enrich Uranium, Nusbacher stressed that in her opinion, the \u201conly long-term solution to the Iranian nuclear program is for the Iranian people to find themselves a government that is more interested in the needs of the Iranian people than in seeking to dominate the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharing similar views, Dr. Efrat Sopher, an Iranian-Israeli security analyst and the chair of the Board of Advisors at the Ezri Center for Iran and Gulf States Research at the University of Haifa, said, \u201cOne wonders what the Iranians are hiding in Isfahan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey also seem to expect some form of kinetic engagement. This is puzzling as one would assume that in the event of an attack on the complex in Isfahan, it would be bombed from the air.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Islamic Republic is likely preparing for the possibility of a US strike, experts told The Jerusalem Post…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":580590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[83,5397,99,50,16363,21968,5961],"class_list":["post-580589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-iran","tag-isfahan","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-nuclear-weapon","tag-satellite","tag-us-iran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116048132083562383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}