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2.4​ ​UN ‘aware Iran building underground centrifuge plant at Natanz nuclear facility’
The UN’s nuclear watchdog on October 28 acknowledged that Iran is building an underground advanced centrifuge assembly plant under mountainous territory at its Natanz nuclear facility after its previous one exploded in a reported sabotage attack in the summer.
Since August, the Iranians have built a new or regraded road to the south of Natanz in central Iran, images from the San Francisco-based Planet Labs show. It appears to link to a former firing range for security forces at the enrichment facility. The image also appear to show construction equipment and analysts from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies have determined that a site is in all probability undergoing excavation.
“That road also goes into the mountains, so it may be the fact that they’re digging some kind of structure that’s going to be out in front and that there’s going to be a tunnel in the mountains,” Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the institute who studies Iran’s nuclear development programme told The Associated Press, adding: “Or maybe that they’re just going to bury it there.”
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told state television last month that the destroyed above-ground facility was being replaced with one “in the heart of the mountains around Natanz”.
Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said his inspectors were aware of the construction work. He said Iran had previously informed IAEA inspectors, who continued to have access to Iran’s sites despite the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that is aimed at keeping the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme entirely civilian.
“It means that they have started, but it’s not completed. It’s a long process,” Grossi said.
Iran has always insisted it has never had any plans to develop a nuclear weapon, but US President Donald Trump’s crushing sanctions campaign against the country has led Tehran to break limits specified by the nuclear accord on its atomic programme. Trump’s challenger in the US election scheduled for November 3, Joe Biden, has expressed a willingness to enter into talks with Iran about the US returning to the nuclear deal.
2.5​ ​Iran hails lifting of 13-year UN arms embargo, says it is “major setback” for US
Iranian officials on October 18 hailed the lifting of a 13-year UN arms embargo on their military, with the speaker of Iran’s parliament (the Majlis), Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, describing it as a “major setback” for the US, ISNA reported.
"This was undoubtedly a major setback for the United States. A failure for the arrogant but weak and isolated American government," he was quoted as
9​ IRAN Country Report November 2020 www.intellinews.com