IRAN ACCUSES ISRAEL OF BEING BEHIND NATANZ INCIDENT, VOWS TO RESPOND

Mon 12 April 2021:

Iran’s top nuclear official said on Sunday that power failure at the Natanz nuclear facility near Tehran is “nuclear terrorism.”

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said the act was an attempt to thwart the ongoing negotiations with the US in Vienna, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

Condemning the act, Salehi called on the international community and the International Atomic Energy Agency for a response.

Earlier, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson of the AEOI, reported an “accident” in parts of the electrical grid at the facility.

He said there were no casualties or leaks, and the cause was being investigated.

The accident came a day after Tehran unveiled new advanced uranium centrifuges.

Tensions between Iran and its long-time adversary Israel have escalated in recent months, especially after diplomatic efforts led by US President Joe Biden to revive the nuclear deal.

Former President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Iranian nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in 2018.

Last year, Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated. Tehran blamed Tel Aviv for the killing, saying it would retaliate.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday, stressing that Tehran will respond to the act.

“The Zionists [Israel] want to take revenge on the Iranian nation responding to its success in the process of lifting unfair sanctions, and our response will affect the Zionsists themselves,” Zarif said, as quoted by official IRNA news agency, at a meeting of the parliamentary committee on security and foreign policy.

According to Zarif, Israel “has publicly announced that it will not allow us to make progress in lifting restrictions, and it believes that it has succeeded in it.”

The foreign minister added that, in response, his country will “achieve new breakthroughs in the nuclear development.”

Zarif went on to say that this “sabotage act” at the Natanz nuclear power plant will not weaken Tehran’s position in the negotiations.

“The negotiating parties [in Vienna] should know that the Natanz reactor will henceforth be equipped with advanced centrifuges with high [uranium] enrichment capabilities,” Zarif added.

Mossad behind attack on Iran’s nuclear site: Israeli radio cites intelligence sources

Israeli public radio cited intelligence sources as saying that Israel’s Mossad spy agency carried out a cyber-attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility.

Kan Radio’s report, which cited unnamed sources, said the attack on Natanz was “an Israeli cyber-attack in which the Mossad was involved… [and] the damage to the Iranian facility is greater than reported” by Tehran.

Iran’s Special Services Identified Person Involved In Natanz Attack

Meanwhile Iranian special services have established the identity of a person who was involved in the sabotage attack at the Natanz nuclear facility, an official from the intelligence ministry told Nour news agency on Monday.

The identity of the person who disrupted the operation of the power grid at Natanz, as a result of which electricity supply to a hall was interrupted, was established, Nour News reported, citing the official.