Iran Admits Serious Damage to
Natanz Nuclear Site, Setting Back ProgramA
Middle Eastern intelligence
official said Israel planted a bomb in a building where advanced centrifuges
were being developed.
An image released by Iran’s
Atomic Energy Organization shows a factory that was damaged at the Natanz
enrichment facility.Credit...Iran Atomic Energy Organization, via Agence
France-Presse
By Farnaz Fassihi, Richard
Pérez-Peña and Ronen Bergman
July 5, 2020
A fire at Iran’s main nuclear
fuel enrichment site caused significant damage, setting back the country’s
nuclear program by months, the government acknowledged on Sunday, after
initially saying the destruction was minor.A Middle Eastern intelligence
official with knowledge of the episode said Israel was responsible for the
attack on the Natanz nuclear complex on Thursday, using a powerful bomb. A
member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps who was briefed on the matter
also said an explosive was used.Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity
when discussing sensitive intelligence and operational topics.Suspicion in Iran
has focused on Israel and the United States, which have sabotaged the nuclear
program in the past and have vowed to keep Iran from developing nuclear
weapons. In the past, Israel and the United States have used cyberattacks to
damage Iran’s nuclear program, but that has been ruled out as a cause in this
case, the Revolutionary Guards member said.Though there was no way to verify
its involvement independently, Israel’s intelligence network has shown its
ability to strike in the heart of Iran, breaking into a warehouse in Tehran in
2018 and stealing half a ton of secret records documenting Iran’s nuclear
project and spiriting them out of the country. Many of these records were given
by Mossad, the Israeli spy agency, to the International Atomic Energy Agency,
with many new clues of where Iran might be hiding forbidden equipment and raw
material.If the damage at Natanz was an attack by a foreign power, it
reinforces Iran’s vulnerability as its economy is strangled by sanctions
imposed by a hostile Trump administration and its population is ravaged by the
Covid-19 pandemic.Tehran is increasingly isolated internationally; even
countries that have opposed U.S. action against Iran recently joined in
accusing it of hiding nuclear activity from international inspectors.Israeli
officials were vague on Sunday when asked about the possibility of involvement
in an attack on Natanz, though they stressed the danger of a nuclear-armed
Iran.“Everyone can suspect us in everything and all the time, but I don’t think
that’s correct,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Sunday in a radio
interview with Kan, the state broadcaster.“Not every event that happens in Iran
is necessarily related to us,” he added, while not denying involvement in the
Natanz explosion.
Image
Benny Gantz, Israel’s defense
minister, was vague on Sunday when asked in a radio interview about the fire at
Iran’s Natanz nuclear site.Credit...Nir Elias/Reuters
Foreign Minister Gabi
Ashkenazi, at a conference on Sunday held by the newspapers Maariv and The
Jerusalem Post, said, “Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear capabilities.” To
that end, he said, “we take actions that are better left unsaid.”In recent months
there have been dozens of episodes, including fires, at industrial complexes in
Iran, and those, too, have been widely attributed to Israel.Just since
Thursday, explosions occurred at two power plants in Iran, and there was a
chlorine gas leak at a chemical plant, all of which the government described as
accidents. The previous week, an explosion hit a missile production facility at
the Khojir military complex in eastern Tehran, which officials said was caused
by a gas tank’s detonating.The Middle Eastern intelligence official who said
Israel was responsible for the explosion on Thursday also said it had nothing
to do with the other recent incidents.Iranian officials have said publicly that
they know what caused the damage at Natanz, but that they are withholding the
information for now.Iran is using high-speed centrifuges to process, or enrich,
uranium. Uranium enriched to lower levels is used in nuclear reactors, but
highly enriched uranium can be fuel for an atomic bomb. Work has been underway
at Natanz to build more advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium much more
quickly.“It’s possible that this incident will slow down the development and
expansion of advanced centrifuges,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told the official Islamic Republic News
Agency on Sunday. “There were advanced equipment and precision measurement
devices at this site that were either destroyed or damaged.”
Image
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman
for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, acknowledged Sunday that damage at
the Natanz site would slow down work on advanced centrifuges.Credit...EPA, via
Shutterstock
He cited “significant financial
damage,” and said that the delay could be several months, but that no one was
injured.“The damaged warehouse was designed for the final stages of advanced
centrifuges and assembly of these machineries,” Mr. Kamalvandi said.While
investigators have considered the possibility that Natanz was hit on Thursday
by a cruise missile or a drone, they view it as more likely that someone
carried a bomb into the building, the Revolutionary Guards member said. They do
not yet know how or when the explosives were sneaked in, but the attack clearly
demonstrated a hole in the facility’s security, he said.The episode will probably
accelerate plans to move more of Iran’s most sensitive facilities underground,
he added.Under the 2015 nuclear deal with the United States, China, Russia and
European powers, Iran agreed to give up much of its enriched uranium and to
limit the level of enrichment and the number of centrifuges it operated.But
since President Trump withdrew from the deal and imposed damaging sanctions on
Iran, it has ramped up the enrichment program far beyond the limits imposed by
the agreement.
🍒🌳💕 #پیش بسوی قیام سراسری ایران# اتحادوهمبستگی 🌳🌹🍒
#سال_سرنگونی #کروناویروس #قیام_تا_پیروزی # مرگ_بر_دیکتاتور
#شورش زندانیان #تيك_تاك_سرنگوني # شهرهای شورشی
#مجاهدین_خلق ایران #ایران #ما بر اندازیم # کانونهای شورشی
#coronavirus #COVID2019 #IranRegimeChange
🍒🌳🌹 ما را در توئیتر با حساب توئیتری 7 @Bahar iran دنبال کنید🌳💕