Two buildings housing facilities for the production of centrifuge components used in Iran’s nuclear program have been destroyed in Karaj, just outside Tehran, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The UN nuclear watchdog made the announcement on Wednesday, just hours after the Israeli military confirmed it had carried out a series of airstrikes in and around the Iranian capital.
“The IAEA has information that two centrifuge production facilities in Iran, the TESA Karaj workshop and the Tehran Research Center, were hit,” the agency said in a post on X.
“Both sites were previously under IAEA monitoring and verification as part of the JCPOA,” the statement added, referring to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
The agency also confirmed that a separate strike on a site in Tehran targeted a building where advanced centrifuge rotors were being manufactured and tested.
Earlier, the Israeli military said its operation aimed to disrupt Iran’s nuclear weapons development efforts. “As part of the broad effort to disrupt Iran’s nuclear weapons development programme, a centrifuge production facility in Tehran was targeted,” the statement read.
Centrifuges are essential to the uranium enrichment process, which can produce fuel for civilian nuclear reactors — or, if enriched to higher levels, material for nuclear weapons.
