Iran blames Israel for assault on nuclear site, vows revenge

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Iran blames Israel for assault on nuclear site, vows revenge

Tue, 04/13/2021 - 13:21
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Iran blamed Israel for an attack on the power network at its largest uranium enrichment plant, raising geopolitical tensions around Iran’s nuclear program as diplomats try to revive the international deal that contained it.

“Various sources have confirmed Israel was behind the attack” at the Natanz facility in central Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a press conference on Monday, without giving further details. IR-1 centrifuges were damaged but it is too soon to assess how badly, he said.

The assault, which cut off power to the site, didn’t disrupt enrichment operations and the plant is still running on emergency electricity backup, state-run IRIB news cited Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the country’s atomic energy agency, as saying. The main power supply will be restored in the coming days, he said.

One person responsible for the power cut has been identified and is being sought for arrest, semi-official Nour News reported, citing an unnamed official in the Ministry of Intelligence.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility, as is its policy in such cases. Suspicion has widely fallen upon it due to its involvement in other attacks on Iran’s nuclear program, and its vehement opposition to U.S. efforts to rejoin world powers’ 2015 deal with Tehran, which traded sanctions relief for curbs on its atomic program.

“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.”

Iran is in touch with the United Nations about Sunday’s incident, and “will reserve all rights” to respond, said Khatibzadeh, the Foreign Ministry spokesman.

The assault has roiled an energy-rich region where Iran is engaged in various proxy wars with Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Washington’s that has drawn closer in recent years to Israel. On Monday, Iran-backed Yemen fighters claimed to have attacked oil facilities in Saudi Arabia with explosive-laden drones on Sunday evening and Monday morning.

There’s been no comment from Saudi Aramco or the kingdom’s government on the Houthi fighters’ claims.

Natanz and its operations have been the frequent target of assaults. In July 2020, a blast and fire at the site caused “significant damage,” in what officials described as sabotage, without blaming a specific government. The facility’s deputy head of enrichment was assassinated in January 2012, and it was the target of a Stuxnet computer virus in June 2010.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran’s response will be “further development of nuclear progress.”

“Natanz will be built stronger than before, using more advanced machines, and if they think our hand in negotiations has been weakened, in fact this despicable act will make our position in negotiations stronger,” he said.

The attack occurred while U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was visiting Israel, and just two days after Iran marked its annual national day of nuclear technology.

Diplomats from Iran, China, Russia, the European Union and the U.S. will gather in Vienna on Wednesday to resume talks on lifting American sanctions imposed after the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear accord in 2018, and returning Iran to full compliance with the curbs on its nuclear program. These include restrictions on uranium enrichment at Natanz.

The attack is “not positive” for the course of negotiations, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at a press conference in Berlin, AFP reported.

The spokesman for Iran’s nuclear organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, was being treated in hospital for injuries to his head, back and ankle after falling about 7 meters (23 feet) down a hatch at the site that had been covered by aluminum sheets scattered in the incident.