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#Iran vows revenge if nuclear enrichment facility suffers cyber attack

#Iran vows revenge if nuclear enrichment facility suffers cyber attack

July 3, 2020 | 12:49pm

Iran has vowed to retaliate against any country that launches cyber attacks on its nuclear sites after a fire at its Natanz plant that some Iranian officials said could have been caused by such sabotage.

“Responding to cyber attacks is part of the country’s defense might. If it is proven that our country has been targeted by a cyber attack, we will respond,” civil defense chief Gholamreza Jalali told state TV late Thursday.

The underground Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant is one of several Iranian facilities monitored by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.

Iran said that the cause of the “incident” at the nuclear site had been determined, but “due to security considerations” it would be announced at another time.

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization initially reported an “incident” had occurred early on Thursday at Natanz, located in the desert in the central province of Isfahan.

It later published a photo of a one-story brick building with its roof and walls partly burned, and a door hanging off its hinges in the photo suggested that there had been an explosion inside the building.

An article issued on Thursday by state news agency IRNA addressed what it called the possibility of sabotage by enemies such as Israel and the United States, although it stopped short of accusing either directly.

“So far Iran has tried to prevent intensifying crises and the formation of unpredictable conditions and situations,” IRNA said, adding that there was no release of radiation from the fire.

“But the crossing of red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran by hostile countries, especially the Zionist regime and the US, means that strategy … should be revised.”

Three Iranian officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said they believed the fire was the result of a cyber attack, but did not cite any evidence.

One of the officials said the attack had targeted the centrifuge assembly building, referring to the delicate cylindrical machines that enrich uranium, and said Iran’s enemies had carried out similar acts in the past.

Two of the officials said Israel could have been behind the Natanz incident, but offered no evidence.

Asked on Thursday evening about recent incidents reported at strategic Iranian sites, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters: “Clearly we can’t get into that.”

The Israeli military and Netanyahu’s office, which oversees Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad, did not immediately respond to Reuters queries on Friday.

In 2010, the Stuxnet computer virus, which is widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel, was discovered after it was used to attack the Natanz facility.

The underground Natanz site remains the centerpiece of Iran’s enrichment program, though Tehran denies ever seeking nuclear weapons, saying its atomic program is only for peaceful purposes.

Iran curbed its nuclear work in exchange for the removal of most global sanctions under an accord reached with six world powers in 2015, but has reduced compliance with the deal’s restrictions since President Trump withdrew the US from the deal in 2018.

With Reuters

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