Iran Says Tunnel Network Near Natanz Aimed At Protecting Facility

After a report revealed Iran’s construction of “a vast tunnel network” just south of its Natanz uranium enrichment plant, Iran says the move was to intensify security measures.

In an interview with Nour News, a website affiliated to the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi made the remarks on Friday in reaction to a report by the New York Times about the work at the underground nuclear facility purportedly able to withstand cyberattacks and bunker-penetrating bombs.

US officials told the Times that the new underground facility was to replace a centrifuge assembly plant that the Times said Israel blew up in 2020 “in a particularly sophisticated attack.”

Kamalvandi claimed that Iran had notified the UN nuclear agency of its plan to relocate the activities of the TESA complex in Karaj to the city of Natanz, saying that the transfer of some of the activities to an area near the Natanz nuclear site aims to prevent the recurrence of attacks, referring to last year’s sabotage at the TESA complex. 

He said that said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been informed about it, even though Iran has no obligation to provide such information to the agency.

The complex in Karaj, on the outskirts of Tehran, saw a sabotage attack in June last year, which authorities blamed on Israel. The attack damaged surveillance cameras at the site.