Israel’s Mossad spy agency was responsible for the power cut on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, which came hours after the site began enriching uranium at high speeds, Israeli media said Sunday citing Western intelligence sources.
Iran called it an “act of terror” but stopped short of blaming Israel.
Tehran “reserves the right to take action against the perpetrators,” the country’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said according to state TV.
He called on the international community and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to fight “nuclear terrorism.”
The power cut, apparently the result of a cyberattack, caused “critical damage at the heart of Iran’s enrichment program,” sources told Israel’s Channel 13.
Uranium enrichment at the facility was stopped until further notice, the report said. No casualties were incurred by the attack.
A day earlier, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered the operation of the advanced centrifuges at the site. The IR-6 and IR-5 centrifuges are capable of enriching uranium at far greater speeds. In January, Iran announced it was enriching uranium at 20 percent purity, constituting a serious violation of the 2015 nuclear deal.
Once 20 percent purity is reached, it is a short technical step for centrifuges to obtain weapons-grade 90 percent enrichment or even higher.
Shortly after the incident, Iran’s envoy to the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna, Abbas Araqji, said that “we have no intention of stopping the enriching of uranium to 20 percent and the use of advanced centrifuges.”
Israel is said to have behind several unexplained explosions at the Natanz facility that were estimated to have set back Iran’s nuclear program several months.
On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Israel to discuss the Iran deal with his with his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
“The Tehran of today poses a strategic threat to international security, to the entire Middle East and to Israel,” Gantz said after the meeting.
“We will work closely with our American allies to ensure that any new agreement with Iran will secure the vital interests of the world, of the U.S., as well as prevent a dangerous arms race in our region and protect the State of Israel,” he added
Speaking from the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, Austin said: “I was tremendously pleased on our discussion of a number of security issues which are important to our two countries.”
Days earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a sharp rebuke to the Biden administration, warning that Israel would not be bound by a renegotiated nuclear deal with Iran that would see the Islamic Republic obtaining a bomb in a few years.