IRAN SLAMS ‘TERRORIST ACT’ AS BLAST HITS NATANZ NUKE FACILITY

A disruption at the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran was a "terrorist act," charged the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) on Sunday, Farshid Motahari reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

"We condemn this terrorist act in Natanz, an attempt by the enemies of Iran to stop its nuclear advances," said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the AEOI, of the incident, which struck the installation overnight into Sunday.

US intelligence officials said the blast and the blackout of the facility was the handiwork of Israel, the New York Times reported.

Salehi also said that part of the plan was to disrupt new talks in Vienna designed to find a way to lift international sanctions placed on Iran because of its efforts to implement a nuclear program.

However, many details of the overnight incident remain unclear and probes are underway to determine what precisely happened and who might have caused the disruption.

Speaking on TV, Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesperson for the Iranian atomic commission, said the disruption originated at a workshop outside of the main facility. He said there were no deaths and operations did not stop.

Officials had already said there were no leaks of atomic material. In Israel, there was speculation in the Jerusalem Post that there might have been an explosion due to an Israeli cyberattack.

It would not be too surprising had there been some kind of attack on the plant. Israel views the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat.

Iran's rulers have routinely made clear they view Israel as an enemy. If they developed the capability to launch nuclear weapons, they would be able to hit any part of Israel.

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