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Iranian officials on Sunday confirmed an “incident” at Natanz, an underground facility where uranium enrichment takes place. “Fortunately, the incident did not cause any human injury or leakage,” said Behrouz Kamalvand, spokesman for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI). “The causes of the accident are being investigated and more information will be announced at a later date.”
The AEOI condemned the incident, calling it a “terrorist action,” according to the Iranian telegram channel from the Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, a branch of the Iranian armed forces.
Just hours after Iranian officials reported the incident, IDF chief Aviv Kochavi said “the country’s operations across the Middle East are not hidden from the eyes of enemies.”
“They watch us, see the capabilities and carefully examine their footsteps,” he said, speaking Sunday at a commemorative event in Jerusalem to mark fallen soldiers.
Reports in several Israeli media outlets on Sunday quoted intelligence officials as saying that Israel’s national intelligence agency, Mossad, was responsible for the incident. Although few details on the unnamed officials are provided, some media have described them as “Western intelligence sources”, although it is not immediately clear whether “Western” includes the possibility that the sources are from or not. ‘Israel.
The Israeli prime minister’s office made no comment on the reports, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Iran on Sunday in a toast to mark the anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel.
“The fight against Iran and its proxies and Iranian arms efforts is a huge task,” he said, appearing alongside Israel Defense Forces chief Kochavi and his senior commanders, as well as the Minister of Defense Benny Gantz. “The situation that exists today will not necessarily be the situation that exists tomorrow.”
Netanyahu is due to meet with visiting US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Monday. It is the highest-level visit to Israel by a member of the Biden administration and comes days after talks in Vienna aimed at restarting negotiations on a possible new nuclear deal between Iran and a group of world powers led by the United States.
US officials were also in Vienna and met with representatives of world powers that are still parties to the deal. They did not meet directly with Iranian officials.
Former US President Donald Trump began imposing new sanctions on Iran by withdrawing the United States from the deal. Iranian officials have argued that the United States must lift all Trump-era sanctions and return to the nuclear deal before re-complying with the deal.
The Israeli leader reiterated his strong opposition this week to the prospect of a reinstated Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -type agreement, saying that Israel “would not be bound by any agreement that would pave the way for Iran to develop nuclear weapons “.
Iran condemns ‘terrorist action’
Iranian leaders condemned the incident.
Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, said: “Iran reserves the right to respond against the perpetrators and those who committed the terrorist action,” the IRGC reported.
“Today’s attack demonstrates that enemies of Iran’s progress and progress in nuclear science, as well as nuclear negotiations, are in desperation by committing terrorist actions against nuclear technology. to Natanz [nuclear facility]. “
In Iranian News Agency reports, other Iranian officials suggested the facility may have been attacked, speculating that the plant may have been targeted as the country discusses a resumption of the nuclear deal. Iranian with its Western signatories.
Iranian Member of Parliament Malek Shariati Niaser said: “The power outage in Natanz on the anniversary of National Nuclear Day is suspicious and could be due to sabotage as Iran attempts to convince Western countries to lift the sanctions, “the official Entekhab.ir news site reported.
A spokesperson for the International Atomic Energy Agency told CNN by email on Sunday that the agency was aware of the media reports.
“We have no comment at this point,” he said.
On the 15th anniversary of Iran’s National Nuclear Technology Day on Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced new uranium enrichment centrifuges at the plant, stating that if Iran’s nuclear activities are at ” peaceful and civilian purposes, “the country’s nuclear capacity was also stronger than any time before.
“Today, a line of 164 IR-6 centrifuges was launched,” Rouhani said on Saturday, according to Press TV. “It can provide us with 10 times more products than the old chain.”
The Natanz nuclear power plant lost a building when a fire broke out last July. The Iranian government said at the time that it was an attack on its nuclear program. It was also the target of the Stuxnet cyberattack in 2010, which security experts said was carried out by Israel and the United States.
CNN’s Andrew Carey and Amir Tal reported from Jerusalem, Ramin Mostaghim reported from Tehran, Sarah Dean reported from London.
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