Iran blames Israel for cyber attack on Natanz nuclear facility, calls it “nuclear terrorism” and vows revenge

Iran had announced on Sunday that its nuclear facility at Natanz has come under a sabotage which it termed as a terrorist attack. The incident happened barely 24 hours after  Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated new centrifuges at the Natanz site in a ceremony that was broadcast live on television. Centrifuges are the most critical devices needed to produce enriched uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel as well as nuclear weapons. As per 2015 Nuclear deal with USA and other countries, Iran is expected to produce and store limited quantities of enriched Uranium as fuel for nuclear power plants, however Iran has abandoned all such provisions post withdrawal of USA from treaty in 2018.

Iran has today blamed Israel for the targetted “cyber attack” on Natanz nuclear facility which resulted in power failure at the plant and damaging the centrifuges, terming it “nuclear terrorism”. Natanz is not new to cyber attacks, the most famous one being the Stuxnet virus of late 2000s which caused the centrifuges to spin out of control and destroy themselves, an attack which is believed to have been done by US and Israel. There has been killings of Iran’s top nuclear scientists on various occasions, latest one that happened in November 2020.

While the extent of damage is still not known, Iran has vowed revenge on Israel for the attack. New York Times reported that a large explosion had completely destroyed the independent internal power system that supplied the centrifuges inside the underground facility. They estimated it could take at least nine months to resume enrichment there. It is significant to note that efforts were on to revive the 2015 Nuclear Treaty by USA and Iran, President Biden had said that he is willing to do so and some informal talks were reported to be taking place in Vienna. Though Israel has not formally commented on the incident, many media reports from Israel suggest that Mossad has succesfully carried out the sabotage through a planned cyber operation.