Iran Resumes Operations at Nuclear Site Israel Allegedly Attacked

JERUSALEM, Israel – Iran has resumed production of equipment for advanced centrifuges at a nuclear site allegedly targeted by Israel earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Citing unnamed diplomats, the paper said Iran resumed work at its Karaj power plant in August and has since accelerated operations there. Iran has produced an unknown number of rotors and bellows for advanced centrifuges there, the diplomats said.

One diplomat said Iran has produced parts for at least 170 centrifuges since late August. Centrifuges are used to spin enriched uranium to a purity high enough for civilian use or for a nuclear weapon. 

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has been unable to access Karaj for months and Western diplomats fear the renewed operations at the site will allow Tehran to develop a covert nuclear program, although they said there is no evidence so far that it is doing so.

One diplomat said there is no indication that the centrifuge parts have been diverted elsewhere, but “as the number of unmonitored centrifuges increases, the likelihood for this scenario increases.”

Iran blames Israel for carrying out a sabotage attack on Karaj in June that stopped production at the facility. Israel has not commented on the allegations. 

The reported resumption of activities at Karaj presents a new complication for the Biden administration, which is set to renew negotiations with Iran in Vienna later this month over the defunct nuclear agreement Tehran signed with world powers in 2015. The White House wants to negotiate a “longer and stronger” nuclear agreement than the one former President Donald left in 2018. Since the US exit, Iran has abandoned most of its commitments under the deal and restricted UN oversight at many of its nuclear sites, including Karaj. 

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Centrifuges will be a key issue in the nuclear talks beginning on Nov. 29, where President Biden hopes to restore the agreement. The original deal aimed to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon by giving the country sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its program. Israel opposed the deal, arguing that Iran signed it in bad faith and the limitations placed on enriched uranium are not adequate. Iran insists it does not seek to develop a nuclear bomb. 

Since 2018, Iran has installed more than 1,000 advanced centrifuges, which can spin enriched uranium at a faster rate. This has reduced Iran’s so-called breakout time – the time required to produce enough material needed for a nuclear weapon – to just one month. 

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday that Israel is "preparing for various scenarios, near and far,” adding, "we are dealing with Iran and its proxies, in Lebanon and Syria."

He indicated that Israel isn’t waiting on world powers to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal for it to take steps to defend itself.  

"It does not matter what occurs between Iran and the major powers, we are concerned by the fact that there is not enough firmness in the face of the Iranian violations; Israel will defend itself, by itself," said Bennett.