Isfahan – strategic Iranian city where explosions heard
By Baran Abbasi and Tom Spender
Famed for its palaces, tiled mosques and minarets, Isfahan – where blasts were heard overnight – is also a major centre for military industry.
Iran’s third-biggest city, nicknamed “Nesf-e-Jahaan” or half the world, is located in the centre of the country near the Zagros mountains.
The city and its region are home to drone and ballistic missile factories.
Relatively nearby is the Natanz nuclear facility, the most important centre for Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme.
With the name Isfahan tied to Iran’s nuclear facilities, the symbolism of an attack there will not have gone unnoticed.
If this was an Israeli attack it seems that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu was sending a message to Iran that it has the capability to strike those sensitive targets in the province whilst refraining from actually doing so at this stage.
Iranian officials were quick to announce that the nuclear facilities in Isfahan province were “completely secure”. Iran, which does not have nuclear weapons, denies it is attempting to use its civilian nuclear programme to become a nuclear armed state.
However there are conflicting reports of what happened overnight. Iran’s space agency spokesman Hossein Dalirian said “several” drones had been “successfully shot down” and rejected reports that a missile attack had taken place.
