How powerful is Iran’s nuclear potential? Will Israel dare to target it?

New Delhi: Exactly 365 days ago on October 7, 2023, Palestine’s militant outfit Hamas attacked and invaded southern Israel. They killed more than 1200 Israeli and other countries’ citizens and took more than 250 hostages.

Israel retaliated soon and bombarded the Gaza Strip while other militant groups like Hezbollah, the Iraqi Resistance, and the Houthis opened fronts on Israel. These groups are regularly often is termed “Axis of Resistance” and are allegedly arrange, mentored, funded, trained, and backed fully by Iran.

Israel attacks Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria

Using the multi-pronged because the trigger, Israel conducted an airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus, Syria on April 1, 2024, destroying the building housing its consular section. Sixteen people were killed all during the strike, including eight officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The attack on the embassy building change into deemed as an instantaneous attack on Iran, as per international laws.

When Iran did the unimaginable

Twelve days later, on April 13, 2024, the unthinkable took place as Iran launched dozens of drones and missiles on Israel in what it termed as an act of retaliation. It change into often often is termed “Operation True Promise”. It change into the primary time that the Persian us of a attacked Israel instantly from its soil with A hundred and seventy drones, 30 cruise missiles, and 100 twenty ballistic missiles.

This change into followed by a nerve-racking time because the arena waited for Israel’s counterattack, more than likely on Iran’s nuclear sites, which are believed to be located across several locations all during the U. S. of a.

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh

Things kept simmering while Ebrahim Raisi, the eighth president of Iran died in a helicopter crash on May 19, 2024. It change into speculated that Israel’s secret agent agency Mossad change into at the back of the crash.

Ismail Haniyeh, the chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, died in an airstrike on July 31, 2024, in Tehran, where he change into attending the inauguration of the newly elected President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian. Again, the needle of suspicion pointed to Israel. What made this event more intense and antagonistic change into the undeniable fact that Ismail Haniyeh’s alleged assassination change into carried out in Iran’s capital Tehran on the occasion of the inauguration of the newly elected President of Iran.

Hassan Nasrallah, major embarrassment for Iran

It change into the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah on 27 September 2024 that led to the 2d direct attack by Iran on Israel on October 1 and the former launched about four hundred ballistic missiles at Israeli targets. The missile attack change into codenamed Operation True Promise 2 as Iran claimed that the attack change into an act of self-defence and in retaliation for Israel’s assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC general Abbas Nilforoushan.

October 7 attacks anniversary

Now, on the primary anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, the general world is waiting with bated breath for the Israeli retaliation against Iran, which is speculated and believed to pay attention on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Iran has always maintained that its nuclear programme is no longer aimed at seeking nuclear weapons. It now has a stock of highly enriched uranium that would likely be converted to weapons-grade fuel for as a minimum three bombs in a time period ranging from about a days to about a weeks, per a report by The Washington Post.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ supervisory body says that Iran is enriching uranium to as much as 60% fissile purity, near 90% of weapons-grade, at two sites. In theory, it has enough subject matter enriched to that level, if in an identical fashion enriched, for nearly four bombs.

Iran’s nuclear flowers and their locations

Natanz: It truly is some distance located on a plain outside town of Qom, south of Tehran. It has two flowers, the underground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) and the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP). Iran houses centrifuges at Natanz. The FEP change into built so which that you just can accommodate 5,000 centrifuges. Reports say that about 14,000 centrifuges are currently installed there out of which 11,000 are in operation and refining uranium to as much as 5% purity.

Israel may attack uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz, per US officials as quoted by The New York Times.

Fordow: This plant is located opposite Qom and is dug right into a mountain to supply protection to it from potential bombardment. Currently, it has more than 1,000 centrifuges operating and Iran recently doubled the variety of centrifuges at Fordow.

Isfahan: Isfahan is Iran’s 2d-largest city and it has a huge nuclear technology centre that features the Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant (FPFP) and the uranium conversion facility (UCF) that can process uranium into the uranium hexafluoride it's fed into centrifuges. This facility builds uranium metal, a process it's specially proliferation-sensitive since it could actually perhaps per chance be used to plot the core of a nuclear bomb.

Khondab: It truly is some distance a heavy-water research reactor, at the start often often is termed Arak. Heavy-water reactors pose a nuclear proliferation risk because they are able to easily produce plutonium which, like enriched uranium, will likely be used to make the core of an atom bomb.

Bushehr: Iran’s handiest operating nuclear power plant on the Gulf Coast uses Russian fuel that Russia then takes back when it's spent, reducing the proliferation risk.