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Iran’s Most Contentious Nuclear Site Just Got Some Serious Russian Firepower

REUTERS/Alexander Natruskin

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Russ Read Pentagon/Foreign Policy Reporter
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Iran’s premier nuclear enrichment facility just got a massive upgrade in its defense capabilities after installing the Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system Monday.

The S-300 bolsters the defenses of the already hardened Fordow nuclear enrichment facility. Fordow is buried beneath a mountain with solidified walls near its uranium enrichment facilities. The facility is tailor-made to withstand a military strike — now that it has advanced air defense, it just became even harder to hit.

Under its obligations in last year’s nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Islamic Republic is supposed to cease uranium enrichment at Fordow and engage in only limited nuclear research.

“What the S-300 does do is severely limit future military operations against a military nuclear facility,” Jonathan Schanzer, the vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “This obviously raises the question of what Iran is looking to protect at Fordow if not a future nuclear weapon.”

Iranian leaders have consistently argued it is their right to defend the facilities any way they see fit, while at the same time claiming their nuclear program is only meant for peaceful purposes.

“Our main priority is to protect Iran’s nuclear facilities under any circumstances,” said Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Brigadier Gen. Farzad Esmaili, commander of the IRGC air defense force, on state television Monday.

Iran’s acquisition and deployment of the S-300 has been a long time coming. The country’s leaders prioritized the purchase of the weapons platform from Russia shortly after signing the JCPOA nuclear agreement last July. Piecemeal shipments of the S-300 began in December.

The S-300 was first developed and deployed during the late Cold War era. Though it is a generation old (Russia currently operates the newer S-400), it has been regularly updated and still has the capability to target and destroy multiple modern aircraft and missiles simultaneously.

President Barack Obama warned prior to the signing of the Iran nuclear deal that striking Iran’s nuclear facilities would still be an option on the table, should an agreement not pan out. Despite the S-300 deployment and other Iranian provocations, Schanzer does not believe the Obama administration is willing to take action.

“The Iran deal is still being touted as President Obama’s foreign policy achievement,” Schanzer told TheDCNF. “The Iranians have warned on multiple occasions that new sanctions could scuttle the deal. It’s unlikely that he would do anything to put that deal in peril.”

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