Israeli cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear plant
Tehran: Iran’s nuclear facility has been the target of a cyber attack by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.
Israeli media reported that it was a cyber attack carried out by Mossad, which caused extensive damage to the installation. Natanz was without power after the attack. The Iranian Atomic Energy Organization also said in a statement that the Natanz nuclear facility had been attacked by terrorists. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, called it nuclear terrorism. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blamed Israel for the incident and said it would be avenged. He said Iran had succeeded in lifting international sanctions, which Israel wanted to retaliate against.
A spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Department, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said in a statement that no nuclear facility personnel had been injured or damaged in the incident. He also ruled out uranium enrichment. A day earlier, Iran had formally inaugurated 164 IR-6 centrifuges and launched a new uranium enrichment IR-9 at the nuclear facility.
The incident comes as talks between the United States and Iran continue in Vienna in the presence of other parties to a global nuclear deal brokered by the European Union, including the US withdrawal from the 2015 global agreement and the lifting of sanctions on Iran. The conversation is ongoing. In 2018, US President Donald Trump decided to secede from the agreement.