Iran's Health Ministry has begun distributing potassium iodide tablets to communities within a 2-3 km radius of its nuclear facilities as it prepares for possibility of US strikes, according to The Times of London report cited by Al Jazeera on Nov 6.
"Yes, we are distributing iodine," an Iranian Health Ministry official was quoted saying. "Trump can no longer be trusted. He may go through with this crime." The official said Iran has done this during previous wars — distributing tablets within 1.2-1.9 miles of nuclear sites as standard wartime precaution.
Iodine tablets do not protect against blast or all radiation. They do one narrow thing: saturate thyroid gland with stable iodine so it cannot absorb radioactive iodine-131 released in a nuclear event. I-131 is leading cause of thyroid cancer, especially in children. With 8-day half-life, pills are first-week shield.
The report comes as US President Donald Trump met his national security team Thursday to deliberate whether to resume military operations against Iran, after limited strikes near Qeshm Island last week. Senior officials told Fox News that CENTCOM is finalising preparations. Trump said decision coming “soon.”
Focus is on Pickaxe Mountain (Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La) near Natanz — heavily fortified underground complex that US suspects houses enrichment. An Iranian political journalist said officials were briefed that a US bunker-busting or even nuclear strike on Pickaxe is being seriously considered. A video circulating on Iranian social media even lists distances — 17 miles to Natanz, 25 to Kashan, 117 to Isfahan — and instructs: “Get inside, stay inside.”
Iran's Health Ministry PR head Hossein Kermanpour later disputed that any official spoke to The Times, but did not deny distribution itself. DEFCON Warning System notes Iran already distributed 180,000 tablets in Bushehr in April 2026 near its operational power plant — so programme is not new, but its expansion to Natanz signals escalation.
Iraq has activated nuclear emergency plans and radiation monitoring along Iran border, per Shafaq.
For India, implications are direct. 9 million Indians live in Gulf, oil prices jumped 4% Friday on war fears, Brent near $88. Any radiological release would travel via Persian Gulf winds. Iodine distribution — last seen in Ukraine around Zaporizhzhia in 2022 — is what governments do when they assume fission event upwind of people, not conventional bombing.
Whether US uses conventional Massive Ordnance Penetrator or, as Tucker Carlson speculated, tactical nuclear — which White House denied — the fact that Iranian families near Natanz are taking iodine pills shows diplomacy is failing faster than deterrence.
*Tags:* #Iran #IodineTablets #Natanz #PickaxeMountain #USStrikes #DonaldTrump #Nuclear #PotassiumIodide #Radiation #GulfCrisis