An Israeli airstrike on Saturday hit a building that was part of Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons programme, according to an American researcher.

David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector and head of the Institute for Science and International Security research group, said that Israel struck buildings in Parchin, a military complex near Tehran.

He said commercial satellite imagery showed that Israel hit a building called Taleghan 2 that was used for testing activities during the Amad Plan, Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons development programme.

The International Atomic Energy Agency and US intelligence say Iran closed the programme in 2003, while Tehran has denied it is pursuing nuclear weapons.

Mr Albright said that Iran may have removed key materials before the attack, he said, but “even if no equipment remained inside” the building would have provided “intrinsic value” for future nuclear weapons-related activities.

The images below show the site before and after the strike, with damaged structures clear in the bottom right corner and bottom centre of the image.