Iran blames Israel for sabotage attempt causing 'structural damage' at Karaj nuclear site

Iran and Israel have never seen eye to eye. In yet another rift, Iran has recently accused Israel of orchestrating a sabotage attempt on a nuclear plant outside Tehran in June. The authorities admitted for the first time that the unexplained attack had caused structural damage to the facility.

Authorities acknowledge the attack

Last month, Iranian authorities announced that saboteurs had been prevented from striking a location in Karaj, which is roughly 40 kms north-west of Tehran. They gave no details on what was in the targeted building, which belonged to Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, or how it was targeted.

Just days after the election victory of the country’s hard-line judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi last month, the sudden admission was followed by a series of other attacks on Iran’s nuclear program, including the killing of a top nuclear scientist.

However, at the time, the attack has caused no casualties or damage. Cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei confessed to the damage caused to the building's ceiling.

“A hole appeared on the ceiling of one of the industrial sheds, so the roof was removed for repairs,” Rabiei said, explaining the satellite images of the roof's abrupt removal.

Last month's reportedly failed attack occurred in the middle of diplomatic activity in Vienna as diplomats try to resurrect Iran's now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal with Western powers, which limited Tehran's enrichment activities in exchange for respite from US sanctions. Former US President Donald Trump pulled America out of the historic agreement three years ago. 

As a result, Iran began to gradually abandon the deal's uranium enrichment restrictions, sparking a series of heated crises in the Middle East. Iran is enriching uranium to 60%, its highest level ever, in order to put pressure on the West for sanctions relief, while it is still shy of weapons-grade 90 per cent. 

Israel opposed 2015 deal

Israel was a vocal opponent of the 2015 agreement, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a "historic blunder." However, Israel's new government has taken a softer stance in recent weeks. Yair Lapid, Israel's foreign minister, informed his American colleague that Israel had "severe misgivings" about the Vienna accord, but that the country will engage constructively and make progress.

Meanwhile, the country has been battling what it claims is an Israeli-led campaign against its nuclear programme. Iran's subterranean Natanz nuclear plant suffered a strange blackout earlier this year, causing damage to several of its centrifuges. Last July, mysterious flames erupted at Natanz's complex centrifuge assembly plant, which authorities later attributed to sabotage. Iran is now a rogue state.

(Inputs from AP News)