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The Race to Capture the Ayatollah’s Treasure
People go about their daily lives in Tehran, Iran, following a ceasefire with Israel on July 15, 2025. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Under a mountain in central Iran lies the key to the Iranian regime’s international power
By Amit Segal
03.09.26 — Israel
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With war raging in the Middle East, we want to bring you as many trusted voices on the news as we can. One such voice is the Israeli journalist Amit Segal. Here’s Amit’s daily newsletter, It’s Noon in Israel, which we’re pleased to publish in The Free Press.

Deep beneath the ground near the Iranian city of Isfahan lies the ayatollahs’ lead-lined treasure chest. It contains the country’s most valuable asset: nearly 900 pounds of 60 percent enriched uranium.

The world’s most radioactive buried treasure was entombed by the U.S. and Israel during the June war and is thought to be inaccessible without a large excavation effort. But according to a recent American intelligence report, there remains a “very narrow access point” through which the Iranians—or the U.S.—could potentially retrieve the prize.

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Amit Segal
Amit Segal is the chief political correspondent for Israel’s Channel 12 and author of the book A Call at 4AM, recently released in English. He is the author of the newsletter It’s Noon In Israel, which publishes six days a week.
Tags:
War
Foreign Policy
Iran
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