Iran yesterday blamed Israel for a sabotage attack on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged its centrifuges, an assault that imperils ongoing talks over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal, and brings a shadow war between the two nations into the light.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack. It rarely does for operations carried out by its secret military units or its Mossad intelligence agency.
However, Israeli media widely reported that the nation had orchestrated a devastating cyberattack that caused a blackout at the nuclear facility.
Photo: EPA-EFE
While the nature of the attack and the extent of the damage at Natanz remains unclear, a former Iranian official said that the assault set off a fire, while a spokesman mentioned a “possible minor explosion.”
The attack also further strains relations between Washington, which under US President Joe Biden is negotiating in Vienna to re-enter the nuclear accord, and Jerusalem, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having vowed to stop the deal at all costs.
Netanyahu yesterday met with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, whose arrival in Israel coincided with 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, and Israel will continue to defend itself against Iran’s aggression and terrorism,” 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 re-engage with Iran over its nuclear program.
“Those efforts will continue,” Austin said.
The previous administration under former US president Donald Trump had pulled out of the nuclear deal with world powers, leading Iran to begin abandoning the limits on its program set by the accord.
German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas expressed concern that the attack could affect the talks.
“All of what we are hearing from Tehran is not a positive contribution to this,” he told reporters.
Details remained scarce about what happened early on Sunday at the facility. The event was initially described only as a blackout in the electrical grid feeding workshops and underground enrichment halls, but later Iranian officials began referring to it as an attack.
The facility seemed to be in such disarray that, following the attack, a prominent nuclear spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi walking above ground at the site fell 7m through an open ventilation shaft covered by aluminum debris, breaking both his legs and hurting his head.
“A possible minor explosion had scattered debris,” Kamalvandi said, without elaborating.
Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that IR-1 centrifuges, the first-generation workhorse of Iran’s uranium enrichment, had been damaged in the attack, but did not elaborate.
“The answer for Natanz is to take revenge against Israel,” Khatibzadeh said. “Israel will receive its answer through its own path.”
He did not elaborate.
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