DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iran on Monday blamed Israel for a sabotage attack on its Natanz underground nuclear facility that damaged the centrifuges it uses to damage uranium there and warned it would carry out the assault. avenge.
The comment by Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh is the first official indictment against Israel for the Sunday assault that cut off power over the plant.
Israel did not take direct responsibility for the attack. However, there is immediate suspicion about it, as Israeli media widely reported that a devastating cyberattack orchestrated by Israel caused the eclipse.
If Israel were responsible for it, it would further increase tensions between the two nations, which were already in a shadowy conflict in the broader Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Sunday, has vowed to do everything in his power to halt efforts to revive a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers..
At a news conference at the Israeli air base Nevatim, where he inspected Israeli air and missile defense systems and his F-35 fighter jets, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin did not want to say whether the Natanz incident was likely to be attempts to reconnect with Iran to its nuclear program.
“These efforts will continue.” Austin said.
Details remained scarce about what happened at the plant early Sunday. The event is initially described as an eclipse caused by the electrical network that runs its above-ground workshops and underground enrichment halls.
“The answer for Natanz is to take revenge on Israel,” Khatibzadeh said. “Israel will receive its answer in its own way.” He did not expand.
Khatibzadeh acknowledged that IR-1 centrifuges, the first-generation workhorse of Iran’s uranium enrichment, were damaged in the attack, but did not expand further. The state television has yet to show images of the facility.
A former head of Iran’s paramilitary revolutionary guard said the attack also caused a fire on the site and called for improved security. In a tweet, Genl. Mohsen Rezaei said a second fire in Natanz within a year indicated “the severity of the infiltration phenomenon”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned separately that Natanz would be rebuilt with more advanced machines, something that could hamper ongoing talks in Vienna with world powers over the rescue of Tehran’s shattered nuclear deal.
“The Zionists wanted revenge against the Iranian people for their success in lifting sanctions,” the state-run IRNA news agency Zairf said. “But we will not allow it and we will take revenge for this action against the Zionists.”
The IAEA, the United Nations body that monitors Tehran’s nuclear program, said earlier it was aware of media reports about the eclipse in Natanz and had spoken to Iranian officials about it. The agency did not expand.
In the past, sabotage was targeted by Natanz. The Stuxnet computer virus, discovered in 2010 and believed to be a joint creation between the US and Israel, once disrupted and destroyed Iranian centrifuges in Natanz during an earlier period of Western fear over Tehran’s program.
In July, Natanz suffered a mysterious explosion at his advanced centrifuge plant that authorities later described as sabotage. Iran is now rebuilding the facility deep within a nearby mountain. Iran also blamed Israel for the assassination of a scientist in November who began the country’s military nuclear program decades earlier.
Several Israeli media reported on Sunday that an Israeli cyber attack caused the eclipse in Natanz. Public broadcaster Kan said the Mossad was behind the attack. Channel 12 TV cites “experts” as estimating the attack to close entire parts of the facility.
Although the reports did not provide any information for their information, Israeli media maintain a close relationship with the country’s military and intelligence agencies.
“It’s hard for me to believe it’s coincidental,” said Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies, about the eclipse. “If it’s not a coincidence, and it’s a big problem, try to send someone a message that ‘we can curb Iran’s march and that we have red lines. ‘
It also sends a message that Iran’s most sensitive nuclear world is permeable, he added.
Netanyahu roasted his security chiefs along with Mossad chief Yossi Cohen on Sunday in front of his country’s independence day late Sunday.
“It is very difficult to explain what we have achieved,” Netanyahu said of Israel’s history, saying the country had been transformed from a weak position into a ‘world power’.
Israel does not usually discuss operations carried out by its Mossad intelligence agency or specialized military units. In recent weeks, Netanyahu has repeatedly described Iran as the biggest threat to his country as he struggles to stay in power after several elections and while facing corruption charges.
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Associated Press author Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.