Iran says Israel responsible for nuclear facility blackout

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, second from right, listens to the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi while visiting an exhibition in Tehran. Pic/AP/PTI

Iran on Monday blamed Israel for a sabotage attack on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged the centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium there, warning that it would avenge the assault.

The comments by Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh represent the first official accusation levelled against Israel for the assault on Sunday that cut power across the facility. Israel has not directly claimed responsibility for the attack. However, suspicion fell immediately on it as Israeli media widely reported that a devastating cyberattack orchestrated by Israel caused the blackout.

If Israel was responsible, it would further heighten tensions between the two nations, already engaged in a shadow conflict across the wider Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met Sunday with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, has vowed to do everything in his power to stop efforts to revive a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

At a news conference at Israel's Nevatim air base on Monday, where he viewed Israeli air and missile defense systems and its F-35 combat aircraft, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin declined to say whether the Natanz incident is likely to impede the Biden administration's efforts to re-engage with Iran on its nuclear programme. "Those efforts will continue," Austin said.

Details remained scarce about what happened early on Sunday at the facility. The event was initially described as a blackout caused by the electrical grid feeding its above-ground workshops and underground enrichment halls. "The answer for Natanz is to take revenge against Israel," Khatibzadeh said. "Israel will receive its answer through its own path." He did not elaborate.

Khatibzadeh acknowledged that IR-1 centrifuges, the first-generation workhorse of Iran's uranium enrichment, had been damaged in the attack, but did not elaborate. State television has yet to show images from the facility.

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