Satellite imagery showed Iran fortifying sensitive locations, including nuclear sites and border areas, as it rebuilt missile and drone programs damaged by earlier US and Israeli strikes, The Jerusalem Post reported. Citing a Wall Street Journal report published Monday, the account said Tehran was strengthening defenses and preparing for a possible renewed war.
Fortifying nuclear sites
Iran built makeshift dirt mounds around its Pickaxe Mountain and Natanz nuclear sites, the Wall Street Journal report said. The barriers aimed to impede a possible ground raid. Vantor satellite images analyzed by the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington, DC, nonprofit, showed Iran had built the measures last month.
The report described the fortifications as part of broader preparations for possible attacks. Iran was reinforcing defenses, rallying loyalists and threatening a wider, harsher response against the United States and its Gulf allies, according to the newspaper.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said: “In both word and deed, the Islamic Republic is actively preparing for the next war.”
The report also described steps to prepare the population for renewed conflict. Paramilitary forces read war stories to kindergartners. Advertisements offered training in firing shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles, and the Wall Street Journal said rallies took place.
Iran was preparing to defend against different kinds of airstrikes, the report said. It had likely drawn lessons from the 12 Day War in June 2025 and the round of strikes that began in February 2026 and continued until May.
Missile repairs and renewed threats
In March, Israel's prime minister said Iran could no longer produce ballistic missiles because of US and Israeli strikes. Earlier assessments had also been optimistic about how many Iranian launchers had been destroyed and how many missiles were “corked” in depots after routes to the missiles collapsed.
The New York Times reported in April that Iran was repairing its missile bunkers. The Jerusalem Post said Iran had shown it could rebuild capabilities.
The Wall Street Journal report said Iranian officials had hinted that their forces could conduct land incursions into neighboring countries, citing people familiar with the warnings. It said the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq on September 30 could give Iran opportunities to infiltrate through Iraq or use Iranian-backed militias there to carry out further attacks.
Those militias had already attacked a key pipeline in Saudi Arabia. US Central Command (CENTCOM) and Saudi Arabia carried out retaliatory strikes in July, while Riyadh was reluctant to confront militias in Iraq and the Houthis at the same time, the report said.
Regional targets and shipping
Tehran separately warned Arab officials it could strike regional targets, including Saudi oil facilities, if conflict resumed, according to the Wall Street Journal. Saudi Arabia was also weighing how to address Houthi attacks on Saudi airports in recent days that killed and wounded people.
Iran continued to threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States worked to ensure ships could pass and limit the crisis's effect on energy prices, but those efforts hadn't resolved the open-ended conflict with Iran, the article said.
The article also said Iran had attacked US bases in the region, damaging facilities and aircraft and prompting the United States to reposition assets. The Jerusalem Post reported that Maariv had said over the weekend that the United States pressured Israel to strike Iran. Both countries had upcoming elections, and any strikes could affect them.
PBS reported Sunday that Iran continued to reject a deal with the United States. The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council considered Washington's latest response “insufficient,” PBS said, while negotiations to end the war and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz made little headway.