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Satellite imagery released at the end of January shows fresh construction at Iran’s Natanz and Isfahan nuclear complexes — new roofs erected over damaged buildings that had been struck last year. The timing and the nature of the work are alarming because these coverings are designed precisely to block the very satellites and analysts the free world relies on to monitor Tehran.
Experts who examined the photos say Tehran is almost certainly trying to hide salvage or recovery efforts, not conduct ordinary rebuilding, especially after it refused IAEA access to inspect the sites. That refusal, combined with visible measures to conceal activity, reads like a bad-faith play straight from the regime’s manual: deny inspectors, hide the work, then claim innocence.
Satellite observers also point to continued excavation south of Natanz at a site dubbed “Pickaxe Mountain,” where piles of dirt and tunnel work hint at new underground construction — exactly the sort of move a rogue regime would take to harden sensitive programs. An Iran that buries its work is an Iran that plans to keep dangerous capabilities beyond detection and accountability.
Let us be blunt: these are not isolated engineering projects; they’re tactical moves after the June strikes that crippled parts of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. The attacks last summer left Natanz and Isfahan damaged, and now Tehran appears to be scrambling to conceal what may remain of its enriched uranium and centrifuge capacity.
All of this is unfolding while the regime violently suppresses domestic protests, prompting new U.S. sanctions on Iranian officials implicated in the crackdown. The disconnect is obvious and infuriating: while Iran beats down its own people and shuts out international monitors, it quietly advances measures that could bring it closer to a nuclear breakout.
Anyone who still treats the mullahs as a predictable state that can be reasoned with is living in fantasy. This regime has never been deterrable through diplomacy alone when it believes it can hide and lie; it respects only pressure and clear consequences. Our policy should reflect strength — relentless intelligence, support for allies, and options that make Tehran pay a real price for concealment and repression.
The stakes are too high to accept wishful thinking. The combination of secretive construction, denied inspections, and domestic bloodshed should steel policymakers to act decisively — not to grovel for deals that leave the nuclear question unresolved. The free world must stand firm in defense of security and human dignity, and demand full transparency from a regime that has shown it will settle for nothing less than its own survival at the expense of regional stability.
