DUBAI (Reuters) – A fire at the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran last month was the result of sabotage, a spokesman for the Iran Atomic Energy Organization told state-owned al-Alam on Sunday.
“The explosion of the Natanz nuclear facility is the result of sabotage operations, the security government will in due course reveal the explanation of the explosion,” Behrouz Kamalvandi said.
In July, Iran’s main security framework said the cause of the chimney site had been decided, but would be announced later. Iranian officials said the chimney site caused significant damage that could slow the progression of complex uranium enrichment centrifuges.
The Natanz uranium enrichment site, much of which is underground, is one of many Iranian services monitored by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear control agency.
Some Iranian officials said the chimney could possibly have been the result of cyber sabotage and warned that Tehran would retaliate against any country carrying out such attacks.
An article through Iran’s IRNA news firm in July was about what he called sabotage through enemies like Israel and the United States.
Israel declined to comment on Sunday.
IAEA leader Rafael Grossi said Saturday that he would travel to Tehran for the first time in that role on Monday to pressure Iran to grant inspectors access to two so-called old atomic sites.
Suspicious IAEA activities similar to the progression of nuclear weapons were carried out in these locations in the early 2000s. Iran insists that its nuclear program has no military dimension.
“Iran has not opposed access to its nuclear facilities, but the IAEA’s problems and accusations are based on serious evidence and documents,” Kamalvandi said.
Iranian officials said Sunday that Grossi’s scale is not similar to U.S. pressure on the United Nations Security Council to reimpose foreign sanctions in Tehran, Iran’s state television reported.
(Written through Parisa Hafezi; Edited through Alex Richardson and Chizu Nomiyama)
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