Iran Reverses Stance, Blames Israel for Attack on Nuke Site

A general view shows the reactor building at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern I
ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty
Deborah Brand

Iran on Tuesday charged Israel with an attack on a nuclear facility near Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported, walking back its claims made at the time that it had thwarted the sabotage.

Iran’s cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei said the sabotage was an attempt to scuttle ongoing talks in Vienna on reviving the nuclear deal, from which the Trump administration withdrew in 2018.

“The Zionist regime carried out this action to signal it can stop Iran and to say [to world powers] that there is no need to talk with Iran,” said Rabiei. “But whenever sabotage has happened, our strength has increased.”

As Breitbart reported, the attack on the facility, which belongs to Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, caused “major damage,” according to experts on the matter.

The site, located near Karaj City on the outskirts of the capital of Tehran, was likely a manufacturing plant for centrifuges, Israeli reports said last month, which would mean a major setback for the regime’s uranium enrichment program for nuclear weapons.

However, Iran’s regime-affiliated ISNA news agency at the time claimed the threat was “neutralized before it damaged the building, and the saboteurs failed to carry out their plan,” and added that there were no casualties.

Rabiei on Monday admitted that there was damage caused to both the building itself and to the equipment inside, but added that the latter wasn’t “remarkable.”

“A hole appeared on the ceiling of one of the industrial sheds so the roof was removed for repair,” Rabiei said.

According to another Israeli report, a large fire had been set off inside the building.

The attack is the latest of mysterious alleged sabotage attempts on nuclear sites.

An April 11 blast at the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran saw the power supply cut and thousands of centrifuges destroyed, reportedly setting back the country’s nuclear program by nine months.

Iran initially downplayed that attack as well, saying little damage was done.

It later blamed Israel for the attack and retaliated by enriching uranium to 60 percent purity, a short technical step away from the 90 percent needed to build a bomb.

Last month, Iran’s southern Bushehr nuclear power plant was temporarily shut down over a “technical fault,” the AEO said in a statement.

 

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