Iran conducts air defense drills near Natanz nuclear site

By Global Watch and AFP | 2025-01-07

Iran's military began drills near the Natanz nuclear enrichment plant in the center of the country on January 7 as part of exercises planned nationwide.

The drills -- dubbed Eqtedar, or "might," in Farsi -- involve Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the ideological branch of Iran's military, alongside the army.

"The first phase of the joint Eqtedar exercises in the air defense zone of the Natanz nuclear facility has commenced under the orders of the air defense headquarters commander," state TV said.

It added that IRGC air forces were undertaking "an all-out point defense" of the site "against a multitude of air threats in tough electronic warfare conditions."

On January 6, IRGC spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini said the drills, which will also cover other parts of Iran until mid-March, were being conducted in response to "new security threats," without elaborating.

Several branches of the IRGC, including the navy and the paramilitary Basij forces, will take part in the exercises, he added.

'Nuclear escalation'

Britain, France and Germany accused Iran on December 17 of growing its stockpile of high enriched uranium to "unprecedented levels" without "any credible civilian justification."

The three countries known as the E3 said in a statement ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting December 17 on Tehran's nuclear program that Iran must "reverse its nuclear escalation."

Iran has increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium such that it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60%, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said.

That level is well on the way to the 90% required for an atomic bomb.

"Iran's stockpile of High Enriched Uranium has also reached unprecedented levels, again without any credible civilian justification. It gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons," the E3 said in its statement.

"Iran has ramped up its installation of advanced centrifuges, which is yet another damaging step in Iran's efforts to undermine the nuclear deal that they claim to support," it added.