Iran has reportedly begun rebuilding missile-production sites targeted by Israel during the 12-day war between the two countries in June this year. According to The Associated Press, while Iran has started rebuilding its missile sites, a key component, the large mixers needed to produce solid fuel for the weapons, is still missing. Iran's missile sites Iran has solid-fuel missile manufacturing bases at Khojir and Parchin, two sites just outside Tehran, as well as at Shahroud, some 350 kilometres northeast of the capital. Why Iran is rebuilding missile sites Missile experts told AP that obtaining the mixers is a goal for Tehran, particularly as it prepares for possible United Nations sanctions to be reimposed on the country later this month. The sanctions would penalise any development of the missile programme, among other measures. Known as planetary mixers, the machines feature blades that revolve around a central point, like orbiting planets, and offer better mixing action than other types of equipment. Iran could purchase them from China, where experts and US officials say they’ve purchased missile fuel ingredients and other components in the past. “If they’re able to reacquire some key things like planetary mixers, then that infrastructure is still there and ready to get rolling again,” said Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies who studied Iranian missile sites. Reconstituting the missile programme is crucial for the Islamic Republic, which believes another round of war with Israel may happen. The missiles are one of Iran’s few military deterrents after the war decimated its air defence systems. Iranian President says not building nuclear bomb Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, reiterated that his country was not building a nuclear bomb. “I hereby declare once before this assembly that Iran has never and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb,” Pezeshkian said. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes, and not for a bomb, even though Tehran had enriched uranium close to weapons grade, much higher than what is required for power generation. Pezeshkian also condemned the Israeli and US strikes in Iran in June, which damaged the nuclear sites, saying they dealt “a grievous blow upon international trust and the very prospect of peace in the region.”
