Israel Struck an Iranian Steel Facility. Was It a Valid Military Target?
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- Israeli airstrikes hit the Mobarakeh Steel complex near Isfahan on March 27 and again days later, alongside a second steel plant in southwest Iran, during the six-week campaign.
- Most targets in the Iran war were traditional military sites — missile depots, launchers, security forces' headquarters, and air defense systems — making the steel strikes an unusual choice.
- Prime Minister Netanyahu justified the steel strikes as eliminating revenue for the Revolutionary Guards and slashing Iran's steel production capacity.
- The Mobarakeh attacks shut down major parts of the Isfahan plant for weeks, idling over 20,000 workers and choking off the supply of steel to domestic manufacturers.
- Iran's economy is deeply entangled with its security apparatus: companies like Mobarakeh serve as revenue sources for the Revolutionary Guards while also providing livelihoods to millions of ordinary Iranians regardless of ideological allegiance.
- A former Mobarakeh employee named Mostafa, speaking anonymously to avoid government retribution, said "I felt like my own home had been destroyed."
Why it matters: The strikes on Mobarakeh expose the blurred boundary between Iran's military-industrial complex and its civilian economy: the same facility that funds the Revolutionary Guards employs 20,000 people and supplies domestic manufacturers, forcing a reckoning over what constitutes a legitimate military target — and what cost ordinary Iranians bear for that designation.
