An overview of the Uranium enrichment installation in Forto (Fortow), south of the capital Tehran, Iran. Satellite image provided by Maxar Tenchnologies and made on February 12, 2025. Photo: AFP / AFP / Profimedia
The reaction surprised the whole world. On June 22, just when Donald Trump announced that the United States had “annihilated” Iran's nuclear sites, Hassan Abedini, the vice -president of the Iranian state television and television, stated live that the targeted installations had been previously emptied by their enriched uranium stocks.
The concern of the West is focused in particular on the 408.6 kilograms of uranium enriched by 60%, stored at the Fordo, a nuclear installation dug in the slope of a mountain, 150 km south of Tehran, writes the French publication Le Point, taken by Rador Radio Romania.
“With 408 kilograms of uranium enriched with 60%, Iran has enough material to manufacture up to ten nuclear weapons,” said Héloïse Fayet, specialized researchers in discouragement and nuclear proliferation at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
But the possession of the fissionable material is not sufficient: it is necessary, among other things, its transformation into metallic uranium, the manufacture of detonators in order to detonate the bomb and, finally, its placement on a rocket.
Nuclear threat has not disappeared. Iran's speculation to make atomic bombs, shattered by the boss Aiea
According to Western intelligence services, Iran would take between a year and a half and two years to produce a complete nuclear weapon, but no political decision in this regard would have been taken by the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatolah Ali Khamena.
Uranium has been moved by Iranians from the forto
Initially considered a bluff from the Islamic Republic to save the appearance after the military defeat, the possibility of an unexpected transfer of the strong uranium stock enriched away from the Forto plant became obvious when the satellite images, published on June 19 and 20 by Maxar Technologies, indicated the presence of 16 trucks parking near the tunnel.
Then, even the head of the International Agency for Atomic Energy (AIEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, confirmed that the nuclear fuel had really been moved.
If the exact location of the fissionable material remains unknown, because the AIEA agents could not have access to it, the Iranians could be tempted to hide it in Isfahan.
An underground uranium enrichment site has been announced as invulnerable, being built under Mount Kuh-E Kolang Gaz at. His existence was revealed on June 12, in response to a resolution of AIEA that condemns Iran for violating his nuclear commitments.
“He is not completely destroyed, no matter what the Americans say.” Great question marks after US attack on Iranian nuclear program
Tehran's warning: “The game is not over”
In order to ensure its survival, Tehran could be headed to the atomic bomb, writes the French Zia.
The Iranian Parliament analyzes a draft law on the withdrawal from the Treaty of Nuclear Non -Children (TNP), which prohibits nuclear weapons.
“The Iranians are at a crossroads,” explained Héloïse Fayet. It is possible that American and Israeli attacks will completely discourage a program to be resumed without this being known, as they can consider that they have invested so much that they have to advance as much as possible to a nuclear weapon, but in a much more secret way.
On June 23, the political counselor of the supreme leader, Ali Shamkhani, had already set the tone: “Even though the nuclear sites are destroyed, the game was not: the materials enriched, the internal knowledge and the political will will remain,” he wrote on Twitter, ten days after surviving an Israeli attack.
“The surprises will continue!” He added.
