Iran began to strengthen underground nuclear facilities amid negotiations with the United States

Satellite images indicate the construction of a new security perimeter around the base of Kolang Gaz A'la Mountain, located south of the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Iran. This was reported on April 23 in a report by the Institute of Science and International Security.

"The creation of a security perimeter around deeply buried uranium enrichment facilities indicates that Iran is increasingly concerned about attempts to illegally enter them," the document emphasizes.

The article states that as soon as work on this project is completed, "the complex will house a modern centrifuge assembly plant, which will replace the ground-based installation at the main facility in Natanz, destroyed by an explosion in the summer of 2020."

The occupied area suggests that additional secret facilities may also be located there, such as an undeclared gas centrifuge complex for uranium enrichment.

"Considering that over the past year Iran has deployed about 6,000 modern centrifuges at the Fordo uranium enrichment plant and at the Natanz fuel enrichment facility outside the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is capable of secretly deploying several thousand modern centrifuges in the new tunnel complex," the institute's report suggests.

The document also notes that none of the tunnel facilities in Natanz has been declared nuclear.

"If Iran builds an enrichment plant and does not inform the IAEA about it when issuing a construction permit, this will be a serious violation of safeguards," the authors of the report say, recalling that negotiations on the nuclear program are currently underway between Iran and the United States.

They put it on repeat: Iran and the United States continue to revive the nuclear deal

Tehran and Washington are reaching a consensus by listening to their allies

On April 19, the second round of talks between Washington and Tehran was held in Rome. As reported by the Iranian media, a "constructive" dialogue took place between the parties. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that Iranian and American officials intend to continue discussions on the nuclear deal on April 23.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the "nuclear deal," was signed in 2015 between Iran on the one hand, and the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany on the other. According to the document, Iran was supposed to remove most of the enriched uranium, provide the IAEA with access to all nuclear facilities in the country for 15 years, and convert the Fordo fuel enrichment plant into a nuclear physics research center that would not have the capacity to enrich uranium.

In 2018, during his first term as president, Donald Trump officially announced that the United States was withdrawing from the "nuclear deal" concluded by the previous American leader, Barack Obama. On January 5, 2020, the Iranian authorities announced a further reduction in commitments under the nuclear deal. Tehran said it would not comply with the limits set out in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the number of centrifuges for uranium enrichment that it could use. At the same time, the Iranian authorities intend to continue cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).