Natanz explosion was a saboteur act, informs Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran

Tehran – The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran informed that the mysterious explosion in the Natanz nuclear project that happened two months ago was a saboteur act. Iran has not held anyone responsible for the explosion. But some of the Iranian leaders are holding Israel and the United States responsible for the act. It is claimed that the explosion in the Natanz nuclear project has set the Iranian nuclear project back by at least four years.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said while talking to the Al-Alam news agency that the Natanz explosion was an act of sabotage. Kamalvandi said that the Iranian security agencies would declare the exact cause for the explosion. But Kamalvandi avoided specifying the timeline for the announcement. Since the last one and a half months, there is a series of suspicious blasts and fires, in Iran. On July 2, there was a sudden fire, culminating into a massive explosion in the Natanz project in Iran. The explosion caused massive damage to the project, for manufacturing centrifuges and the assembly unit. Information was received that the Iranian nuclear program was severely jolted with this explosion.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards had held Iranian contractor, Irshad Karimi responsible for the blast. The Revolutionary Guards accused that Karimi, supplying necessary materials to the plant, perpetrated the fire and the blast. A leading US daily accused that Israel and the United States carried out this blast through a cyberattack. The concerned daily also claimed that the blast was carried out by planting a bomb in the project. There was also a talk that Israeli F-35 stealth fighter jets launched missile or rocket attacks on the Natanz plant. However, Israel refused to comment on the allegations levelled against it.

Natanz Nuclear plant, 250 kilometres away from capital Tehran has the biggest Iranian unit for Uranium enrichment. A few days before the blast, Iran had planned to increase the Uranium enrichment level, in the concerned unit. The US news agency Bloomberg accused that Iran had prepared for Uranium enrichment, violating the 2015 nuclear deal, signed with the western countries. The US news agency pointed out that there was a blast in the plant, before the plan could be implemented.

Meanwhile, the United States has started preparations to impose new sanctions against the Iranian nuclear and missile programs. In the next few days, the United States will be submitting the proposal for these sanctions in the United Nations. Whereas, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Organisation has announced his visit to the Iranian nuclear projects.