The Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) reported Thursday that it has detected Iranian activity at the Mount Makosh nuclear site, a fortified underground facility near Natanz that has been a focus of US-Israeli intelligence and repeated US strike warnings since July.
The Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) announced Thursday that it has identified Iranian activity at the Mount Makosh underground nuclear facility, without providing further details on the nature or extent of the activity. The report, carried by The Zioneer Intelligence Desk, comes amid a prolonged US-Israeli focus on the site.
Mount Makosh, located near Natanz, has been assessed as a hardened enrichment site where Iran moved thousands of advanced centrifuges in the months following Operation Rising Lion in June 2025, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and i24NEWS cited by The Zioneer. The facility, buried 80–100 meters underground, has been described as resistant to conventional bunker-busting munitions.
In late July, President Donald Trump vowed that the US would strike Mount Makosh 'fairly soon,' calling it a target. A senior Israeli official briefing in Washington on July 29 said Israel was not aware of any enrichment currently taking place at the site. Later that week, CNN reported that the US military had prepared strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, including Mount Makosh.
The IAEC's new identification of activity may add pressure for a decision on a kinetic strike, which senior Israeli officials have said rests with the Trump administration. No confirmation of enrichment or weapons-related work has been publicly attributed to the IAEC's finding.
5 developments
- StrongThe Zioneer: Mount Machush — a secret nuclear site inspectors never visited, one of the hardest aerial targets
- StrongSatellite imagery reveals construction activity at Iran's secret underground nuclear facility near Natanz
- DevelopingChannel 14 investigation describes Mount Makosh as Iran's most important nuclear asset
- DevelopingCNN: US military prepared strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, including Mount Makosh
Source and signal
- Open-source intake