The US could strike Iran. Here’s how Tehran is getting prepared
By Mostafa Salem, Farida Elsebai, Gianluca Mezzofiore , CNN
(CNN) — As the United States continues a significant military buildup in the Middle East, Iran has taken steps to signal its readiness for war, including fortifying its nuclear sites and rebuilding missile production facilities.
Iranian and US negotiators held indirect talks in Geneva for three-and-a-half hours on Tuesday, but it ended with no clear resolution. Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said both sides agreed on a set of “guiding principles,” but US Vice President JD Vance said the Iranians had not acknowledged “red lines” set by US President Donald Trump.
Despite ongoing talks, the White House has been briefed that the US military could be ready for an attack by the weekend, after a buildup in recent days of air and naval assets in the Middle East, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Amid the threat of war, Iran has spent recent months repairing key missile facilities and heavily damaged air bases while further concealing its nuclear program. It has appointed war veterans to its national security structures, conducted maritime wargames in the Persian Gulf and launched an intense crackdown on domestic dissent.
Repairs
In June last year, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran that destroyed parts of its nuclear program, severely damaged missile production sites and killed key military commanders. Over the ensuing 12-day conflict, Iran retaliated by launching hundreds of missiles and drones at Israeli cities, while the US struck three Iranian nuclear sites – with US President Donald Trump claiming they had been “totally obliterated.”
Western nations have consistently failed to persuade Iran to curb its missile program, which Tehran regards as a central pillar of its military strength and a right to its self-defense.
Despite suffering heavy losses in the war with Israel, satellite imagery analysis reveals that Iran has rebuilt damaged missile facilities.
Satellite imagery of the Imam Ali Missile Base in Khorramabad, captured on January 5, shows that of the dozen structures destroyed by Israel, three have been rebuilt, one has been repaired while three others are currently under construction. The facility houses silo launch sites critical for firing ballistic missiles with earthwork and construction around them.
Two other military bases have also undergone extensive repairs. At the northwestern Tabriz air base linked to Iran’s medium-range ballistic missiles, taxiways and runways have been restored. In another a missile base in the north of the city, extensive work has been conducted after the war. All the entrances were reopened after being bombed shut, the support area by the entrance was mostly rebuilt and some tunnels are now open, according to a CNN analysis and Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies (CNS).
At Hamadan Airbase in western Iran, craters created by bombs on the runway have been filled and aircraft shelters repaired, according to a CNN analysis and Lair.
Iran has also swiftly rebuilt its largest and newest solid-propellant missile production facility in Shahrud, a technology that allows for the rapid deployment of longer-range missiles.
“I think the most important site is Shahrud. The damage there was repaired very quickly,” Lair said. “There was also a new production line under construction there during the war which was not damaged and is now likely operational, which means counterintuitively solid propellant missile motor production might be greater now than before the war, at least at that site.”
Fortifying nuclear facilities
Despite expressing flexibility in limiting its nuclear program, Iran is rapidly fortifying several of its nuclear facilities, using concrete and large amounts of soil to bury key sites, according to new satellite imagery and analysis from the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).
High-resolution satellite imagery from February 10, 2026, analyzed by ISIS, shows Iran continuing to harden tunnel entrances at the underground complex carved into Pickaxe Mountain near Natanz. Fresh concrete is visible at both the western and eastern entrances, increasing protection that could help shield the facility from potential airstrikes, alongside trucks and other construction equipment at the site.
At a nuclear facility known as ‘Taleghan 2’ at the Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran, satellite images published this week show that Iran has completed a concrete sarcophagus around the site and is now covering it with soil, according to the Washington-based institute that focuses on nuclear nonproliferation.
“The facility may soon become a fully unrecognizable bunker, providing significant protection from aerial strikes,” ISIS president David Albright warned in a post on X.
At the 7th of Tir Industrial Complex near Isfahan in central Iran, which is linked to producing centrifuge parts for uranium enrichment, damaged structures have been rebuilt, according to CNN-reviewed image analysis. The complex was sanctioned by the UN in October 2025.
“I think Iran is reconstituting its nuclear and missile programs, probably faster than Israel claimed it could during (Operation) Rising Lion,” Jeffrey Lewis, Distinguished Scholar of Global Security at Middlebury College, told CNN referring to the Israeli strikes in June.
“The reconstruction of the buildings, as well as some other information, suggests that Iran was either able to replace that equipment or move it to safe places underground before the strikes,” he added.
Reshaping governance
Last year’s conflict with Israel laid bare weaknesses in Iran’s command structures under pressure, with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reportedly becoming increasingly hard to reach and authority devolving to provincial governors.
Tehran has since strengthened the Supreme National Security Council headed by Khamenei confidant Ali Larijani and formed a new authority – the Defense Council – to govern in times of war.
War veteran and a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Ali Shamkhani, who survived an Israeli attempt on his life during last year’s war, was appointed this month as the secretary of the Defense Council, with the aim of “comprehensively strengthening defense preparations” and developing “mechanisms to counter emerging threats,” an outlet affiliated with Iran’s security apparatus, Nour News, said.
Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said Shamkhani’s appointment signals that Iran is preparing for the possibility of a US decapitation strike – potentially targeting the Supreme Leader himself.
“It’s becoming a … more immediate question, the issue of post-Khamenei succession, and they are getting prepared for that … whether or not that’s going to be the case, it depends on many factors, like the scale of a potential US attack or a campaign. But this is at least what I can see happening from within the system,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson.
Crackdown on dissent
Israel’s strikes on Iran in June were preceded by a sophisticated infiltration by Israel’s Mossad spy agency, a tactic that heightened the already paranoid state of the Iranian regime.
Iran has intensified its crackdown on dissent amid concerns war could trigger regime change. Last month, security forces brutally suppressed nationwide protests, killing thousands and arresting many more in the deadliest suppression of demonstrations in the history of the Islamic Republic.
The regime accused protesters of being Israeli spies and deployed the brutal local paramilitary Basij force to suppress demonstrations which were sparked by poor economic conditions but transformed into calls for regime change.
And the regime’s deepening paranoia has even turned inward. Last week, four prominent reformists who campaigned for President Masoud Pezeshkian were detained by Iranian security forces and accused of incitement against “the internal atmosphere” and working “to destroy national cohesion by … spreading untrue positions against the country,”
War games
As Iranian negotiators engaged with the US in Geneva, Iran launched naval drills in the Persian Gulf to demonstrate its disruptive capabilities to Washington’s regional allies.
In a first, the IRGC closed parts of the Strait of Hormuz for a few hours as it conducted naval exercises, according to Iranian media. The critical chokepoint is located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, through which one-fifth of daily oil global production flow every day.
Iranian officials have previously threatened to close the strait in the face of tensions with the West, a scenario that could cause upheaval in the global energy market.
Iran’s navy also held a joint exercise with Russia in the Gulf of Oman and northern Indian Ocean, where the two sides carried out a drill to “retake a mock hijacked ship,” according to Iranian state media.
This month, the US deployed two aircraft carriers to the region, and one of them shot down an Iranian drone that as it aggressively approached it in the Arabian Sea. And earlier, two gunboats operated by the IRGC approached a US-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and threatened to board and seize the ship, according to a US military spokesman.
Amid the US military buildup and Iran’s wartime preparations, experts say Iranian officials are trying to send a message to the US.
“The Iranian tactic is trying to convince the United States that war is going to be costly,” said Vali Nasr, a professor at Johns Hopkins University said. “This is not like June. This is not going to be like Venezuela, that the United States will have to face certain costs and it has to calculate those costs before it actually strikes Iran,” he said.
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