Israel has apparently confirmed the allegations that it was behind a cyber attack on Iran’s main nuclear power plant on Sunday, which the Tehran nuclear chief described as an act of terrorism that justifies a reaction against its perpetrators.
The apparent attack took place hours after officials at the Natanz reactor resumed the rotation of advanced centrifuges that could accelerate enriched uranium production, at a crucial moment in the country’s nuclear program.
While the Iranian authorities scrambled to deal with a large-scale eclipse at Natanz, which acknowledged that the country’s nuclear energy agency had damaged the electricity network on the ground, Israeli defense chief Aviv Kochavi said the country’s “operations in the Middle East is not hidden from the eyes of the enemy ”.
Israel has not imposed any censorship restrictions on coverage, as is often the case after similar incidents, and the apparent attack has been widely covered by Israeli media. Public radio took the unusual step of claiming that the Mossad intelligence agency played a central role.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said later on Sunday that “the fight against Iran and its proxies and the Iranian armaments effort is a major mission”.
“The situation that exists today will not necessarily be the situation that will exist tomorrow,” he added without elaborating further.
The inexplicable closure is arguably the latest in a series of talks between the two arch-enemies, which have waged an extensive and escalating shadow war over the Middle East over a decade, with the core of Iran’s nuclear program and its involvement in matters outside the country. its boundaries.
There have recently been public clashes with strikes against shipping, the execution of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, hundreds of airstrikes on Iranian proxies in Syria, and even a mysterious oil spill in northern Israel, which officials there claim is environmental abortion.
Natanz remained a focal point of Israeli fear, with an explosion damaging a centrifuge assembly plant last year, and a combined CIA and Mossad cyber attack using a computer virus called Stuxnet in 2010, causing widespread disruption and has delayed Iran’s nuclear program several times. years.
Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi has called on the international community and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to take action against the perpetrators of the attack. He confirmed that a “terrorist attack” had damaged the electricity network of the Natanz site. The IAEA said it was aware of the reports but declined to comment further.
The attack was carried out by ‘opponents of the country’s industrial and political progress, who want to prevent the development of a thriving nuclear industry’, Salehi said.
Malek Chariati, spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s energy commission, claims it is sabotaging.
“This incident, which comes the next day (the next day) on Nuclear Technology Day, while Iran is trying to force the West to lift sanctions, is strongly suspected to be sabotage or infiltration,” Chariati said. .
The developments took place when US President Joe Biden was prepared to reactivate a bitterly disputed agreement to ease sanctions in exchange for Tehran restricting its nuclear program and not pursuing the development of a nuclear weapon. The 2015 treaty was at the heart of Barack Obama’s government foreign policy, but was quickly shattered by his successor, Donald Trump, who instead switched to an aggressive stance to strangle Iran’s economy as he strengthened local enemies.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday, partly to sell Washington’s new position to skeptical Israeli officials, fearing that even a scaled-down Iranian program would cover the construction of a nuclear weapon that the could reach eastern Mediterranean. .
After meeting with Austin, Israeli Defense Secretary Benny Gantz said: “We will work closely with our American allies to ensure that any new agreement with Iran will safeguard the vital interests of the world, the United States, a dangerous arms race in our region and protects the state of Israel. ”
The attack on Natanz came five days after an apparent Israeli mine attack on an Iranian cargo ship in the Red Sea, which Western intelligence officials have long claimed was a command and control vessel used to carry the Tehran-backed Houthis. to support in the war in Yemen.
The cargo ship, known as the Saviz, was severely damaged by at least one mine that exploded below the waterline. The ship sent a few calls, which were received by the nearby Saudi Arabian Coast Guard. The strike was the latest in a series of retaliatory attacks on shipping from each country across regional waters over several years, many of which have not been recognized.
It was followed by a series of Israeli airstrikes in Syria that damaged a military base near Damascus allegedly used by proxies loyal to Iran, providing support to the Lebanese militia and political power station, Hezbollah, which is a vital arm of Iran’s foreign policy remains.
Israel last year broke its eight-year silence of airstrikes in Syria, acknowledging that it was responsible for some 1,000 attacks, which it said were aimed primarily at preventing Hezbollah from adapting advanced guidance systems to rudimentary rockets on Lebanese soil.
The Israeli strikes in Syria have caused widespread damage to the country’s military infrastructure, which has been plagued by a decade of insurgency and war, and have led United Arab Emirates diplomatic efforts to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. , to put under pressure. severed an alliance with Iran that helped him remain a leader. Despite the insistence of several reliable security officials, and the support of Russia, which also played a role in securing its rule, Assad refused the openings.
Hezbollah, which has provided military muscle on behalf of Iran, remains vehemently opposed to such a proposal, and senior officials fear such a repositioning could be aimed at eventually enforcing peace talks with its arch-enemy.
Western officials believe Israel has become increasingly shameless in its efforts to disrupt the Iranian program, pointing to the assassination of the country’s leading nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, last November, who was shot dead along with his bodyguards on a rural highway. Iran claims that artificial intelligence was used to identify Fakhrizadeh, who was shot dead by an automatic weapon. The small truck carrying the weapon then exploded.