Iran has sealed the entrances to a hardened tunnel complex at its Isfahan nuclear site, burying them under mounds of soil in what analysts say signals genuine fear of a U.S. or Israeli strike. High-resolution satellite imagery taken Monday shows the middle and southern tunnel entrances now "unrecognizable and fully covered," with the northernmost entrance "backfilled," according to the Institute for Science and International Security.
The activity represents the first major visible work at the bombed nuclear sites since last year's June war — and it tells a story Tehran probably didn't want told from orbit.
According to Breitbart, the Institute's report paints a picture of urgency. Three tunnel entrances at Isfahan — middle, southern, and northernmost — have been deliberately obscured. The Associated Press had already reported in late January that Planet Labs imagery showed new roofs built over damaged buildings at Isfahan and Natanz, along with additional fortification around the tunnel entrances. What Monday's imagery reveals is an escalation: Iran isn't just patching damage. It's burying things.
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, told the New York Times that piling dirt at Isfahan may be in:
"anticipation of an attack"
— implying there is "something in there that's valuable."
You don't mobilize engineering units to bury empty tunnels under soil. Whatever Iran is protecting at Isfahan matters enough to race against the clock.
Jonathan Hackett, a former U.S. Marine Corps veteran with 20 years in counterintelligence attached to U.S. intelligence agencies and special operations units, told the Jerusalem Post that the activity around the Isfahan complex likely reflects:
"a larger push to create defensive layers"
— in anticipation of a possible U.S. strike. Hackett added that the IRGC was also "surging to protect ballistic missile sites," describing it as part of the regime's "Mosaic Doctrine."
Dr. Lynette Nusbacher, a former British Army intelligence officer, offered a blunter assessment. Iran is protecting its facilities "in ways that are observable from satellites," she noted — which raises its own question about whether Tehran wants the hardening seen as a deterrent signal. On the calculus behind the move, Nusbacher was direct:
"It is certainly easier to clear tunnel entrances with bulldozers than to rebuild after a Tomahawk strike or a Massive Ordnance Penetrator turns sites into craters."
That's the math Tehran is doing right now. Not whether to protect these sites, but whether the protection will hold.
All of this unfolds against a diplomatic backdrop in which Tehran is trying to play both ways. Indirect U.S.-Iran nuclear talks resumed in Oman on Friday. Iran's president called them "a step forward." Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described them as "a good start."
President Trump called the talks "very good" — while warning that failure to reach a deal would bring "very steep" consequences for Tehran.
Tehran paired its diplomatic language with something sharper. On Tuesday, Iranian Army chief Major General Amir Hatami warned that any enemy "miscalculation" would be met with an "unprecedented" response.
Talk softly in Oman. Threaten loudly from Tehran. Bury your tunnels overnight. This is the Iranian negotiating posture — and it looks far more like a regime gearing up for confrontation than one genuinely seeking resolution.
The tension isn't confined to satellite photographs. The U.S. Maritime Administration issued an advisory Monday instructing U.S.-flagged ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz to remain "as far as possible" from Iranian waters. The advisory told crews to decline permission for Iranian forces to board and, if boarding occurs, not to forcibly resist — while stressing that non-resistance does not imply consent.
Last week alone:
Meanwhile, Reuters reported Tuesday that Patriot missile systems have been positioned on mobile launchers at Al-Udeid in Qatar. The pieces on the board are moving.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet President Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Israel is pressing for any U.S.-Iran framework to address not just the nuclear program but also Iran's missile program and its proxy networks — the full architecture of Iranian threat projection, not just the warhead at the tip.
That's the right demand. Any deal that addresses enrichment while ignoring the ballistic missiles designed to deliver it and the proxy armies designed to destabilize the region isn't a deal. It's a concession dressed in diplomatic language. The 2015 framework taught that lesson at enormous cost.
Iran has prevented International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from accessing Isfahan and Natanz. It's burying tunnel entrances under dirt. It's threatening "unprecedented" retaliation while calling negotiations "a good start." And it's harassing American ships in the strait that carries a fifth of the world's oil.
Nations that are serious about diplomacy don't bury the evidence first.