SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iranian foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif on Monday blamed its regional arch-foe Israel for an incident at the Natanz nuclear facility on Sunday, saying Iran will its revenge.
“The Zionists want to take revenge because of our progress in the way to lift sanctions … they have publicly said that they will not allow this. But we will take our revenge from the Zionists,” state TV quoted Zarif as saying, according to Reuters.
On Sunday, spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi had said that a problem with the electrical distribution grid of the Natanz site had caused an incident.
Kamalvandi said the incident caused no casualties or contamination, adding that Tehran reserves the right to take action against the perpetrators.
The facility, located in the desert in the central province of Isfahan, is the centerpiece of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme and is monitored by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar said on Sunday that the incident was caused by an act of “nuclear terrorism”.
“While condemning this despicable move, Iran emphasizes the need for the international community and the International Atomic Energy Agency to deal with this nuclear terrorism and reserves the right to take action against the perpetrators,” Salehi said. He did not elaborate.
Israel, which has accused Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons that could be used against it, made no official comment on the incident. It took place a day after Tehran, which has denied it seeks atomic arms, launched new advanced enrichment centrifuges at Natanz.
Israel’s Kan public radio cited intelligence sources, whose nationality it did not disclose, as saying that Israel’s Mossad spy agency had carried out a cyber attack at the site.
