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A30 WORLD NEWS
Diahuebs 29 OctOber 2020

Satellite photos show construction at Iran nuclear site

(AP) — Iran has begun construction at its Natanz nuclear program. "Or maybe that they’re just going cidents pushed the two countries to the brink of
nuclear facility, satellite images released Wednesday to bury it there.” war at the beginning of the year.
show, just as the U.N. nuclear agency acknowl-
edged Tehran is building an underground advanced Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the Interna- Iran now enriches uranium to up to 4.5% purity,
centrifuge assembly plant after its last one exploded tional Atomic Energy Agency, told The Associated and according to the last IAEA report, had a stock-
in a reported sabotage attack last summer. Press on Tuesday that his inspectors were aware pile of 2,105 kilograms (2.32 tons). Experts typical-
of the construction. He said Iran had previously ly say 1,050 kilograms (1.15 tons) of low-enriched
The construction comes as the U.S. nears Election informed IAEA inspectors, who continue to have uranium is enough material to be re-enriched up to
Day in a campaign pitting President Donald Trump, access to Iran's sites despite the country having weapons-grade levels of 90% purity for one nuclear
whose maximum pressure campaign against Iran moved away from many limits of its landmark 2015 weapon.
has led Tehran to abandon all limits on its atomic nuclear deal with world powers, known as the Joint
program, and Joe Biden, who has expressed a will- Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. Grossi told The Associated Press, however, that the
ingness to return to the accord. The outcome of IAEA's current estimate is that Iran does not yet
the vote likely will decide which approach America “They have started, but it’s not completed. It’s a have enough to produce a weapon.
takes. Heightened tensions between Iran and the long process," Grossi said.
U.S. nearly ignited a war at the start of the year. Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for the Iranian Iran’s so-called “breakout time” — the time needed
mission to the United Nations, would not com- for it to build one nuclear weapon if it chose to do
Since August, Iran has built a new or regraded road ment on the satellite images or discuss specifics of so — is estimated now by outside experts to have
to the south of Natanz toward what analysts believe the construction, but said Iran was being transpar- dropped from one year under the deal to as little as
is a former firing range for security forces at the en- ent with its actions. three months. Iran maintains its nuclear program
richment facility, images from San Francisco-based is for peaceful purposes, though Western countries
Planet Labs Inc. show. “Nothing in Iran regarding its peaceful nuclear fear Tehran could use it to pursue atomic weapons.
program is being done in secret, in full keeping
A Planet Labs satellite image Monday shows the with the JCPOA, and as the IAEA has repeatedly Natanz, built underground to harden it against air-
site cleared away with what appears to be construc- confirmed,” Miryousefi said in an email. strikes, long has been at the center of those fears
tion equipment there, while an Oct. 21 image from “This instance is no different,” he said. since its discovery in 2002. Centrifuges there still
Maxar Technologies shows trucks, cars, backhoes spin in vast halls under 7.6 meters (25 feet) of con-
and other vehicles at the cleared site. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy crete. Air defense positions surround the facility in
Organization of Iran, last month told state televi- Iran's central Isfahan province.
Analysts from the James Martin Center for Non- sion the destroyed above-ground facility was being Despite being one of the most-secure sites in Iran,
proliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute replaced with one “in the heart of the mountains Natanz was targeted by the Stuxnet computer virus
of International Studies say they believe the site is around Natanz.” — believed to be the creation of the U.S. and Israel
undergoing excavation. — before the nuclear deal.
Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the U.S.
“That road also goes into the mountains so it may from the JCPOA deal Iran, in which Tehran agreed In July, a fire and explosion struck its advanced
be the fact that they’re digging some kind of struc- to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for centrifuge assembly facility in an incident Iran later
ture that’s going to be out in front and that there’s the lifting of economic sanctions. When the U.S. described as sabotage. Suspicion has fallen on Isra-
going to be a tunnel in the mountains," said Jeffrey ramped up sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly el, despite a claim of responsibility by a previously
Lewis, an expert at the institute who studies Iran's abandoned those limits as a series of escalating in- unheard-of group.

ICE settles lawsuit filed by immigrant activists in Vermont

(AP) — The federal gov- filed Wednesday in U.S. to be split among the three in Vermont, at a rally out- “Not everybody's going to
ernment has agreed not District Court in Vermont. plaintiffs. side the federal courthouse like it, but we can't be scared
to deport three immigrant on Wednesday. He spoke in and we can't retreat,” she said
activists in Vermont who As part of the settlement in “ICE tried to terrorize us Spanish as a translator inter- through an interpreter.
sued two years after they the lawsuit against U.S. Im- by going after our leaders,” preted.
were arrested, saying they migration and Customs En- said plaintiff Victor Diaz, a “They tried to divide us by Burlington Police arrived a
were targeted in retalia- forcement and the Depart- member of Migrant Justice, going after our organization. short time later and an offi-
tion for their activism, ac- ment of Homeland Security, an advocacy group represent- They tried to silence us, but cer talked with an activist. It
cording to the settlement ICE will also pay $100,000 ing immigrant farmworkers with this settlement we are wasn't clear whether police
saying that we will not be si- pursued the driver.
lenced," he to cheers among
the crowd blocking part of a One of the three plaintiffs,
downtown street. Zully Palacios Rodriguez,
said when the lawsuit was
An email was sent to ICE filed that she and a fellow
seeking comment. Migrant Justice member
During the rally, a driver who were arrested by armed un-
wanted to drive through the dercover agents as they were
street blocked by activists leaving the group’s office in
holding signs yelled at them Burlington in 2017.
to get out of the way, pulled
out a machete and from the Before the arrest, she said,
driver's seat banged it on ICE tried to enter her email
hood of his vehicle. Leaders account and used a confiden-
urged activists to get out of tial informant to spy on the
the way and let the vehicle group’s members and gather
pass as he zoomed through. information about them.

Afterward, Thelma Gomez, Some Vermont dairy farms
of Migrant Justice, said what employ Mexican farmwork-
happened was a clear exam- ers, many of whom are in the
ple of what happens when country illegally.
the people rise up to defend
their rights.