Iran vows revenge for the ‘Israeli’ attack on its Natanz nuclear site

Th Iranian foreign minister of Iran has said that his country will “take revenge” for the attack on its nuclear site and it is blaming Israel

Iran officials have said that the Natanz uranium enrichment plant had been the target of “nuclear terrorism” on Sunday, after having initially reported it as a power failure.

New advanced centrifuges to enrich the uranium had just been activated there.

Israel has so far not commented, but public radio cited intelligence sources as saying it was a Mossad cyber operation.

They said it had caused more extensive damage than Iran had originally reported.

This comes after, written in the Daily Telegraph and publications such as Le Monde in France and El Pais in Spain, 24 leaders had argued that a treaty similar to the one that was reached in the aftermath of World War Two is needed in order to build cooperation across the globe.

US intelligence officials had told the New York Times that a large explosion had completely destroyed the independent internal power system for the site, that supplied power to the centrifuges inside the underground nuclear facility.

They estimated that it could take at least nine months to resume uranium enrichment there.

Iran’s Nour News agency, which is affiliated to the Supreme National Security Council, meanwhile cited a source at the intelligence ministry as saying the “main perpetrator” behind the disruption to the electricity system had been identified and that “necessary measures are being taken to arrest this person”.

Israel has recently stepped up its warnings about its arch-foe’s nuclear programme amid efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal that had been abandoned by the former US President Donald Trump.

His successor, Joe Biden, has said that he wants to return to the landmark accord. But Iran and five other world powers still party to it; China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK, need to find a way for him to lift the US sanctions and for Iran to return to its agreed limits on its nuclear programme.

This comes after Donald Trump has urged his Republican supporters to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus. During a TV interview with the right-wing Fox News, the former US president said that the vaccine is “safe” and “something that works”.

“The Zionists want to take revenge because of our progress in the way to lift sanctions,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted by state media as saying on Monday.

“They have publicly said that they will not allow this. But we will take our revenge from the Zionists.”

Iran does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and often refers to it as the “Zionist state”.

Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh later told a news conference in the capital, Tehran, that Israel was “of course” behind the attack on Natanz.

“This incident, fortunately, did not cause any damage to human lives or the environment. However, it could have been a catastrophe. This is a crime against humanity and carrying out such actions is in line with the essence of the Zionist regime,” he said.