Dump trucks, bulldozers, concrete pump trucks, mixers and cranes are operating beneath a large tarp at Taleghan 2 in southeastern Tehran, according to satellite imagery from September 2026. The covering is intended to obscure the work from aerial reconnaissance.
The site was destroyed in an Israeli strike in October 2024. It had been used during Iran's AMAD Plan, a programme linked to work on a nuclear explosive device in the early 2000s, including a scaled-down 2003 test of a multipoint initiation system.
Iran began rebuilding Taleghan 2 in May 2025, and by early 2026 it had become a hardened bunker with concrete barriers and drone protection. A separate account of the work says further reconstruction began in June 2026, with workers excavating penetration holes and covering them with reinforcing steel and concrete caps.
Satellite images in November showed a large cylindrical object inside the facility, estimated at about 36 meters long and at least 12 meters wide. The rebuilt site was struck again in early March 2026. By September 2026, Iran had added concrete reinforcement to one side of Taleghan 2, with a similar structure completed on the other side to offer protection against aerial attack.
The work at Taleghan 2 forms part of a wider reconstruction effort. Iran is also rapidly rebuilding a heavily fortified facility at the Parchin military complex, which has been struck twice since 2024, satellite imagery from September 2026 analysed by a Washington-based nuclear watchdog shows.
Iran has reinforced defences around nuclear and other sensitive sites, including new dirt barriers at the Natanz and Pickaxe Mountain nuclear sites. It has also used the pause in major direct fighting to rebuild missile and drone production facilities and replenish its arsenal.
The preparations reach beyond military compounds. Iranian officials have said publicly that airports, ports and power plants are being readied to operate in wartime conditions. In Tehran, billboards advertise civilian courses involving shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons and sniper rifles.
Iran has coupled those measures with warnings of a wider regional response to any attack. It has told mediators it could target US personnel more aggressively, including by trying to sink American warships in the Middle East and kill their crews. Mohsen Rezaei, Iran's top national security official, has said Tehran could target the United Arab Emirates, along with regional data centres and internet cables.
Iran has also warned Arab officials that Saudi oil facilities could be targeted in renewed fighting. In September 2026, a security incident occurred in the Strait of Hormuz about 16 nautical miles northeast of Khasab, Oman; the crew was reported safe and authorities were investigating.
The rebuilding is taking place while international inspectors have little visibility over Iran's nuclear work. The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, has not inspected the Taleghan 2 building and has carried out almost no in-field verification in Iran for more than six months, apart from an inspection of Bushehr in June. As of September 2026, the agency said it could not maintain continuity of knowledge over enriched uranium stockpiles at facilities affected by military strikes.
Before it lost access, the IAEA estimated that Iran possessed 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to as much as 60% purity. Rafael Grossi, the IAEA director general, called the lack of information and access a 'serious proliferation concern' requiring urgent action.
Another uncertainty lies at the summit of the Iranian state. Mojtaba Khamenei has not appeared publicly, been seen in a verified new image, or released new video or audio since becoming supreme leader after his father's death in late February. Officials have issued written messages in his name saying that he remains active and in good health.
Iran's state news agency IRNA has published photographs from 2024 showing the sons of then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei visiting people wounded in Hezbollah's pager explosions in Lebanon. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Iranian parliament speaker, praised China and Russia for vetoing a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution that would have extended the mandate of the panel of experts monitoring sanctions on Iran. Writing on X, he said: 'The unipolar order in which one side extracts concessions through force and coercion has ended.'
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