Amid rising tensions with Israel and with less than two weeks left before the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Iran’s military has begun testing its air defences near the important Natanz nuclear facility.
The first phase of a manoeuvre around the site in the centre of the country began on Tuesday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.
It said the Air defence units were also being prepared for attack conditions such as electronic warfare.
After repeated threats by Israel’s government to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities thought to be developing nuclear weapons, anxiety is growing in the country about a possible war.
Conservative hardliners in Iran are fuelling the concerns by calling for nuclear weapons tests as a military deterrent.
Experts suspected that Israel is waiting for Trump’s support for a complex airstrike on Iran’s nuclear industry.
In addition to political considerations, Israel’s military is also dependent on special bunker-busting U.S. bombs for example for a potential strike on Iran’s underground Fordo enrichment complex.
However, the ability of a military attack to completely prevent Iran’s leadership from building a nuclear bomb is disputed among experts.
Meanwhile, the Iranian government under the more moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected in July 2024, is hoping for a new nuclear agreement with the West.
Talks on this had been suspended for years.
In 2018, Trump unilaterally withdrew from an international nuclear pact intended to restrict Iran’s nuclear programme and lift sanctions in return.
Tehran then also stopped complying with the terms of the agreement.
