Tehran to hit back over Natanz
TEHRAN: Iran blamed Israel for an attack that it said damaged centrifuges at its largest uranium enrichment plant, raising geopolitical tensions around Iran’s nuclear programme as diplomats try to revive the international deal that contained it.
“Various sources have confirmed Israel was behind the attack” on Sunday at the underground facility at Natanz, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a press conference yesterday, without giving further details.
IR-1 centrifuges were damaged but it is too soon to assess the scale of the damage as each affected device must be tested, he said. Iran is in touch with the United Nations about the incident, and “will reserve all rights” to respond, Mr Khatibzadeh added.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility, as is its policy in such cases. But suspicion has widely fallen upon it due to its involvement in other attacks on Iran’s nuclear programme and its vehement opposition to US efforts to rejoin world powers’ 2015 deal with Tehran, which traded sanctions relief for curbs on its atomic programme.
“The struggle against Iran, its satellite groups and its weapons is an enormous task,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told high-ranking security officials, according to a statement posted on his official website after the attack. “The situation as it exists today will not necessarily be the situation that exists tomorrow.”
The Trump administration pulled out of the accord in 2018 and reimposed crushing sanctions.
The attack at Natanz occurred while US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was visiting Israel and shortly before diplomats from Iran, China, Russia, the European Union and the US gather in Vienna to resume talks on lifting US sanctions and returning Iran to full compliance with the curbs on its nuclear programme.
Earlier yesterday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested Israel was to blame, without officially accusing it.
“The Zionists want to take revenge on the people of Iran for their successes on the path of lifting cruel sanctions, but we will not allow this and we will take revenge on the Zionists for these steps,” Mr Zarif said in parliament.
Iran’s response will be “further development of nuclear progress”, he said. “Natanz will [be] built stronger than before, using more advanced machines, and if they think our hand in negotiations has been weakened, [...] this despicable act will make our position in negotiations stronger.”
The Natanz enrichment site suffered an electrical problem on Sunday, with Iran’s top nuclear official calling the incident “nuclear terrorism” aimed at thwarting the country’s atomic programme and international diplomacy around it.
One person responsible for causing a power cut at the facility has been identified and is being sought for arrest, semiofficial Nour News reported, citing an unnamed official in the Ministry of Intelligence.
The spokesman for Iran’s nuclear organisation, Behrouz Kamalvandi, was being treated in hospital for injuries after falling about 7 metres down a hatch at the site that had been covered by aluminium sheets scattered in the incident.