On the 12th, the Iranian government accused Israel of damaging Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility and declared that Iran would launch retaliation.
When meeting with members of the national security and foreign policy committee of the parliament, Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Jawad Zarif said that Israel “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear facilities because it was dissatisfied with Iran’s progress in lifting the unfair sanctions, so it took “retaliation”.
Zarif said Iran will retaliate against Israel’s actions.
Said khatibzad, spokesman of Iran’s foreign ministry, said that Israel is engaged in “acts of nuclear terrorism” in Iran, and Iran will “retaliate in a timely manner”.
Iran’s Guangming news agency quoted an official of Iran’s intelligence department as saying that Iran has locked down a suspect and is starting to arrest him.
Natanz nuclear power system failure on the 11th, causing no casualties and radiation pollution. Later in the day, Ali Akbar Salehi, chairman of the Iranian atomic energy organization, condemned the “hostile action” and “nuclear terrorism” against the Natanz nuclear facility, saying that Iran reserves the right to take action against the perpetrators and those behind the scenes.
Before Iran accused Israel, Israeli media quoted intelligence sources to disclose that the Israeli intelligence and secret service (Mossad) launched a cyber attack on the Natanz nuclear facility, and the losses suffered by Iran were “more serious than they claimed.”. However, at present, Israeli officials have not recognized that Israel is related to the incident at Natanz nuclear facility.
Hatibzad said that some ir-1 centrifuges at Natanz nuclear facility were damaged in this incident, but they will be replaced by more advanced models.
The day before the “cyber attack” on the Natanz nuclear facility, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered 164 ir-6 centrifuges in the facility to start production of enriched uranium. According to Rouhani, the production efficiency of enriching uranium by ir-6 centrifuge is 10 times that of the first generation of ir-1 centrifuge.
In July 2015, Iran reached a comprehensive agreement with the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany on the Iranian nuclear issue. Iran promised to limit its nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions by the international community. The agreement stipulates that Iran can only use ir-1 centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
However, in May 2018, the US Donald Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement and restarted and increased sanctions against Iran. In view of the practice of the US side, Iran has gradually suspended the implementation of some provisions of the Iran nuclear agreement since May 2019.
New US President Joseph Biden has expressed his willingness to return to the Iran nuclear agreement. On June 6, representatives of the parties involved in the Iran nuclear agreement began to hold talks in Vienna, Austria, on the resumption of US-Iran compliance, and a new round of talks was held on September 9.
