San Diego Union-Tribune

IRAN PLACES BLAME ON ISRAEL FOR SABOTAGE

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Iran blamed Israel on Monday for an attack on its undergroun­d Natanz nuclear facility that damaged its centrifuge­s — sabotage that imperils ongoing talks over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal and brings a shadow war between the two countries into the light.

Israel has not claimed responsibi­lity for the attack, but Israeli media reported that the country had orchestrat­ed a cyberattac­k that caused a blackout at the facility. Israeli officials rarely acknowledg­e operations carried out by the country’s secret military units or its Mossad intelligen­ce agency.

While the nature of the attack and the extent of the damage at Natanz remains unclear, a former Iranian official said the assault set off a fire while a spokesman mentioned a “possible minor explosion.“

The attack further strains relations between the U.S., which under President Joe Biden is now negotiatin­g in Vienna to re-enter the nuclear accord, and Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to stop the deal at all costs.

Netanyahu met Monday with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, whose arrival in Israel coincided with the first word of the attack. The two spoke briefly to journalist­s but took no questions.

“My policy as prime minister of Israel is clear: I will never allow Iran to obtain the nuclear capability to carry out its genocidal goal of eliminatin­g Israel,“Netanyahu said.

At an earlier news conference at Israel’s Nevatim air base, Austin declined to say whether the Natanz attack could impede the Biden administra­tion’s efforts to reengage with Iran in its nuclear program.

“Those efforts will continue,” Austin said. The previous administra­tion under Donald Trump had pulled out of the nuclear deal with world powers, leading Iran to begin abandoning the limits on its atomic program set by the accord.

 ?? IRANIAN PRESIDENCY OFFICE VIA AP ?? Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (second from right) visits a nuclear exhibition on Saturday.
IRANIAN PRESIDENCY OFFICE VIA AP Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (second from right) visits a nuclear exhibition on Saturday.

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