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Israel’s hit on Iran’s main uranium enrichment site at Natanz on Friday destroyed the above-ground part of the facility and is believed to have damaged its underground uranium enrichment capabilities.

Although Israel also fired missiles at Fordow, home to another facility where nuclear fuel can be purified, that base is believed to still be fully functional.

This week, speculation has mounted over whether the US would supply Israel with the weapons necessary to strike inside the Fordow plant, which is deep underground and much harder to access than Natanz.

So what is known about the Fordow plant, and can it be destroyed?

What is the Fordow nuclear facility?

Fordow was originally built as a military facility for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It is located 30km (18.5 miles) northeast of the city of Qom in northwestern Iran and is reportedly hundreds of metres inside a mountain.

Iran disclosed its conversion to a nuclear site in a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog, on September 21, 2009, after learning that Western intelligence services already knew about it.

Days later, the United States, Britain and France confirmed publicly that they were indeed aware of a secret fuel enrichment plant at Fordow. Conclusive intelligence that Iran was trying to install 3,000 centrifuges at the site was gathered in early 2009. By September, Fordow’s conversion was nearing completion.

Fordow is the only Iranian facility at which IAEA inspectors have found particles of uranium purified to near weapons-grade purity. That happened during an unannounced inspection in 2023.

The site is designed to hold up to 2,976 spinning centrifuges, the IAEA said, a fraction of the capacity for the approximately 50,000 in Natanz, Iran’s main nuclear site, which Israel struck the day it began its air strikes on Iran.

Has Fordow been damaged in the recent Israeli strikes?

Iran did strike Fordow.

But on Monday, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said: “No damage has been seen at the site of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant or at the Khondab heavy water reactor, which is under construction.”

What is known about nuclear development at Fordow?

After the presence of the Fordow site became public in 2009, the US and Iran began their first direct talks in 30 years.

“The goal for these negotiations is to reach a mutually agreed long-term comprehensive solution that would ensure Iran’s nuclear programme will be exclusively peaceful,” the IAEA said.

While Iran submitted design information on Fordow to the IAEA in October 2009, it refused to submit a timeline for its design, construction and original purposes, saying that information lay outside its reporting obligations under the safeguards agreement with the UN agency.

Two years later in September 2011, then-IAEA Director General Yakiya Amano revealed that Iran had “installed centrifuges in Fordow with the stated objective” of producing uranium enriched up to 20 percent.

By March 2012, Amano reported that monthly production of 20 percent-enriched uranium at Fordow had tripled as four cascades of centrifuges had started simultaneous operation for the first time.

Uranium enrichment is the process of increasing the concentration of the uranium-235 isotope in natural uranium, which normally contains only about 0.7 percent U-235. To build a nuclear weapon, uranium must be enriched to about 90 percent U-235. Once enriched to those levels, uranium is considered “weapons-grade”.

In 2015, Iran, China, Russia, the US, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The deal put strict curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions.

In 2015, Iran was believed to have 2,700 centrifuges installed at Fordow.

What did Iran agree to under the JCPOA?

As the JCPOA talks progressed, Iran stopped production at Fordow by January 2014 and didn’t conduct “any further advances” there, the IAEA reported for the rest of the year. Iran also diluted its enriched uranium stockpile to 5 percent purity.

The JCPOA banned enrichment at Fordow and allowed only peaceful development of nuclear technology in Iran for energy production in return for a complete lifting of sanctions.

Iran agreed to refrain from any uranium enrichment and research into uranium enrichment at Fordow for 15 years. It also agreed not to keep any nuclear material there but instead to “convert the Fordow facility into a nuclear, physics and technology centre”.

A little more than 1,000 of the facility’s centrifuges were allowed to remain there with the rest moving to Natanz – something the IAEA said was done by January 2017.

Are there concerns about clandestine nuclear development at Fordow?

Despite the JCPOA, concerns and speculation over the Fordow  facility continued.

In 2016, Iran placed a Russian S-300 air defence system above the facility, indicating that it feared a direct air strike there.

After US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, Iran gradually slid free of its constraints too, even though European partners tried to salvage the agreement.

During the unannounced inspection in January 2023, the IAEA discovered that Iran had connected two sets of centrifuges at Fordow, allowing it to enrich uranium to 60 percent purity, in contravention of Tehran’s safeguards agreement with the UN agency.

“Iran implemented a significant change to the declared design information for the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) without informing the agency in advance. This was contrary to Iran’s obligations under its safeguards agreement,” Grossi said.

The IAEA also said it had found uranium particles at Fordow enriched to 83.7 percent purity – close to the 90 percent enrichment needed for weapons-grade uranium.

“At the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, we found particles of high enriched uranium with enrichment levels well beyond the enrichment level declared by Iran,” Grossi said on March 6, 2023.

Iran denied this. On June 3 this year, Iran told the IAEA it had “exhausted all its efforts to discover the origin of such particles in those locations. According to the extensive investigations and examinations, relevant Iranian security authorities have recently discovered further clues confirming that sabotage and/or malicious act have been involved in the contamination of those locations.”

Can Israel destroy the Fordow facility?

It is widely believed that Israel lacks the means to penetrate the facility unless it deploys a commando unit to go inside it and physically plant explosives – a risky operation.

The Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is considered a much more difficult target than Natanz because it is located inside a mountain.

The US, however, has a bomb that could theoretically destroy Fordow. The Massive Ordnance Penetrator weighs 13,600kg (30,000lbs). If enough of these bombs are dropped from a B-2 bomber, they could possibly collapse Fordow’s underground bunkers. Trump on Wednesday left open the possibility that he might deploy these weapons.

“I’m not looking to fight,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “But if it’s a choice between fighting and having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do.”

In typically enigmatic fashion, he said: “I may do it. I may not do it.”

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s government has been rocked after a major coalition partner quit amid mounting public anger over a leaked phone call she had with a former Cambodian leader.

Paetongtarn faced growing calls to resign on Thursday as the kingdom was racked by renewed political instability, with fears that an ongoing border dispute with Cambodia could trigger military clashes.

The crisis engulfing Paetongtarn’s government comes after audio was leaked of a phone call she held with Cambodia’s ex-leader Hun Sen, who still wields considerable influence in his country, discussing a border dispute between the countries in which a Cambodian soldier was killed in a clash in May.

During the June 15 call, Paetongtarn pressed Hun Sen for a peaceful resolution to the dispute, calling him “uncle” and urging him not to listen to “the other side” in Thailand, including an outspoken Thai army general who she said “just wants to look cool”.

Paetongtarn later told reporters that her stance towards Hun Sen was a negotiation tactic, and there were no issues with the military.

Coalition partner quits

The leak has caused a strong backlash against the 38-year-old prime minister – the daughter and niece, respectively, of former leaders Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra – just 10 months into her premiership.

Late Wednesday, the conservative Bhumjaithai party – her Pheu Thai party’s biggest partner – pulled out of the coalition, saying Paetongtarn’s conduct had wounded the country and the army’s dignity.

The loss of Bhumjaithai’s 69 MPs leaves Paetongtarn’s coalition with a slim majority in parliament, raising the prospects of a snap election just over two years since the last one.

Other coalition parties will hold meetings on Thursday to discuss their next steps, with their defection from the coalition likely to spell the end of Paetongtarn’s government.

The main opposition People’s Party, a successor to the Move Forward Party that won most seats in a 2023 vote but was disbanded last year by a court, said new elections were needed.

“The situation yesterday on the leaked phone call is the last straw for Prime Minister Paetongtarn in harming public trust in her,” People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said.

“I want the prime minister to dissolve parliament. I think the people want a government that can solve problems for the people, a legitimate government that comes from a democratic process.”

Hundreds of antigovernment protesters demonstrated outside Government House on Thursday, demanding Paetongtarn quit, the AFP news agency reported.

Army ‘affirms commitment’ to democracy

Paetongtarn’s perceived slight on a general is a sensitive issue in a country where the army has played an influential role in politics. There have been a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy rule in 1932.

The military said in a statement that army chief General Pana Claewplodtook “affirms commitment to democratic principles and national sovereignty protection”, AFP reported.

“The Chief of Army emphasised that the paramount imperative is for ‘Thai people to stand united’ in collectively defending national sovereignty,” the statement said.

The crisis engulfing Paetongtarn has prompted fears that another coup could eventuate, AFP reported. Both Thaksin and Yingluck were removed from power by the military.

Paetongtarn met top security officials on Thursday to discuss the crisis with Cambodia, the Reuters news agency reported.

With Thailand’s defence minister, army chief and armed forces commander at her side, she apologised over the leaked conversation, appealed for national unity and affirmed her support for the military.

“We don’t have time for infighting. We have to protect our sovereignty. The government is ready to support the military in all ways,” she said.

Cambodian ambassador summoned

The leak has further inflamed tensions between Thailand and neighbouring Cambodia, amid the simmering territorial dispute. On Thursday, Thailand summoned the Cambodian ambassador over the matter, saying the disclosure of a private conversation was unacceptable.

“It is a breach of diplomatic etiquette, a serious violation of trust, and undermines conduct between two neighbouring countries,” Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said.

Video shows distressing scenes as a badly wounded Palestinian girl in Gaza embraces the body of her father, who was killed in an Israeli attack on Khan Younis. Luna Rasras was sheltering in a tent with her family when the attack happened. Her siblings were also killed.

Kiev, Ukraine – A domestic flight that spans the Baltic and the Pacific takes almost nine hours to reach Vladivostok’s port in Vladivostok, which is located just outside of Moscow.

Russia’s east-to-west border is approximately 10 000 kilometers (6,200 miles), or 17 million square kilometers (6,6 million square miles), making up 11% of the landmass of the Earth, which is slightly larger than the combined areas of China, India, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.

Despite having two-thirds of it permafrost, Russia’s sheer size prevented invasions, whether it was through Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812 or the 3.8 million soldiers of Nazi Germany and its allies in 1941.

Russia’s size has become a liability as the conflict with Ukraine, a former province whose Cossack armies once led czarist conquests, continues to grow.

Former deputy chief of Ukraine’s general staff, Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, sarcastically told Al Jazeera, “Russia’s territory offers maximum capabilities for strikes.”

Ukrainians rewrite the rules of conflict and reject Russia’s dated tactics, from top brass to civilian volunteers building drones in their garages.

Kyiv shows every day that the nearly 2, 000 kilometers (1, 230 miles) long border between Russia and Ukraine is treacherous in both directions.

Tens of thousands of servicemen were diverted by it in Kursk and Bryansk, two western Russian regions.

In addition, Moscow’s Soviet-era air defense systems, which were built to intercept NATO missiles, are spread too thin throughout western Russia, frequently failing to withstand more sophisticated Ukrainian drone attacks.

According to Romanenko, the Ukrainian Security Service, the principal intelligence agency that has carried out numerous stings in Russia, “if a group of people is professional and motivated enough, it’ll always find a way to accomplish a goal, and that’s something the SBU proved.”

Operation Spiderweb, a massive drone attack launched by the SBU on June 1, marking the first time since the 2022 global invasion, was carried out there.

Near the Belaya airbase in the Irkutsk region, almost 4, 000 kilometers (2, 500 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian drones reportedly flew out of a truck to destroy or harm several strategic bombers.

Bombers were also targeted by the same sting in the Amur region, which is 7,500 kilometers (4,660 miles) east of Ukraine, but the Ukrainka (“Ukrainian woman”) airstrip was the only place the bombers were saved due to a technical issue.

The sting is a lesson that military installations are now more vulnerable than ever to cheap, easily hidden, and quickly deployed weapons, according to Mick Ryan, a former Australian general and fellow at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute.

Following humiliating defeats, Kyiv’s campaigns on Russian soil are bold and ambitious.

Many Ukrainians accompanied the occupants when they were ordered to surrender government buildings and military installations without firing a single shot following the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

A third of the southeast Donbass region was taken over by Moscow-backed separatists a few weeks later, and Ukrainian forces were pushed out.

Moscow anticipated a blitzkrieg in 2022, so Vladimir Putin and his top brass might not have thought to consider defending its own territories.

Volodymyr Fesenko, the head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera, “They didn’t think about it at all, they didn’t plan a long operation.” Moscow “didn’t anticipate Ukraine to hold off on to Russian territory for such a long time and repel Russian aggression.”

Additionally, Ukrainian drones aim at locations in Moscow and the surrounding area, which have a large concentration of military installations and bases.

One of the palaces was reportedly slightly damaged by two Ukrainian drones that flew over the Kremlin in May 2023.

Two years later, Moscow’s suburbs continue to be awash with humming hummingbirds.

A woman who lives southwest of Moscow and requests anonymity told Al Jazeera, “I cherish nights without air raid sirens.”

Western Russia’s civil flights are frequently delayed or canceled, so some travelers take trains to airports in northern Kazakhstan.

Ukraine began pursuing Russia’s economy, which is the backbone of the country.

Nearly a sixth of Russia’s oil refining capacity was hampered by dozens of strikes on oil refineries and pipelines, according to the Pentagon’s defense intelligence agency in mid-May.

The strikes came as a response to Russia’s campaign to obliterate Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing a 30-percent increase in domestic gasoline prices, and triggering the import of gasoline from neighboring Belarus.

Washington slammed Kyiv for raising global oil prices because the attacks were so devastating.

In a nation with infamously potholed roads, Kyiv makes use of Russia’s excessive reliance on railroad supply lines.

Seven people were killed and 69 people were hurt when two bridges collapsed on May 30 in the western Russian towns of Kursk and Bryansk, causing the derailment of two trains.

Moscow attributed the explosions to “terrorist attacks” on Ukraine.

However, some analysts contend that Kyiv’s attacks on Russia are too belated, insufficient, and unfocused.

According to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher at Germany’s Bremen University, Ukraine has “fore long ignored outdoor ammunition depots but symbolically and senselessly struck Moscow.”

Russia responded by building hangars and moving planes to even more distant airfields when it actually started hitting depots and airbases, he claimed.

What Ukraine can destroy without having the option of restoring, he said, will result in significant one-time losses for Russia. And that’s where I don’t actually see successes.

However, Romanenko, a retired general, believes that the real successes are still in store.