“While nuclear talks are taking place—and Iran keeps scheduling yet another meeting—they are exploiting the time to modify nuclear facilities in ways that could diminish the impact of a potential military strike on those sites and its outcomes,” said the intelligence sources.
Foreign reports and think tank reports have flagged a trend since October 2024, when Israel successfully destroyed all of Tehran’s advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, of Iran trying to move aspects of its national security assets underground, spread out to more locations, and to finish a new nuclear facility at Natanz. This past Spring, Iran also unveiled multiple videos of underground “missile cities” and other military sites, where it could also move sources of its national power which are currently above ground.
Regarding the new Natanz nuclear facility underneath a mountain even deeper than the Fordow facility, construction started years ago, but less than two months ago a paper by the Institute for Science and International Security noted recent changes which appeared to show a potential rush process to finish aspects of the facility to make it operational sooner. There is a wide-ranging debate about whether Israel could strike Iranian military assets if they were moved to this new facility.
In recent weeks, senior Israeli and European officials have cautioned top members of the US administration that Iran is deliberately stalling in the negotiations.

The issue was also raised in a phone call this week between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump. “Tehran is simply buying time,” Netanyahu warned the American president. As previously reported by the Post, European officials have similarly warned their US counterparts that Iran is dragging out the talks in an attempt to create a rift between Europe and the United States over the snapback mechanism—UN Security Council sanctions on Iran that can only be reimposed until mid-October. Under the 2015 nuclear agreement, the member states have the authority to impose broad United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran through a mechanism known as the snapback, in response to major violations of Iran’s nuclear commitments. This option will no longer be available after October, the “sunset date”. The European signatories have made it clear to Iran that if a new and “meaningful” nuclear deal is not reached by August, they will trigger this mechanism, which would result in extensive sanctions on Iran. “The Europeans told the United States that there must be a clear timeline for the negotiations; otherwise, the Iranians will deliberately stall to create a US-Europe confrontation in an effort to block the use of the sanctions mechanism,” several sources told the Post.
Trump tells Netanyahu he now opposes military attack on Iran