Israel’s ‘Shadow War’ on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Gets More Complicated

A number of new generation Iranian centrifuges are seen on display during Iran's National Nuclear Energy Day in Tehran (Reuters)
A number of new generation Iranian centrifuges are seen on display during Iran's National Nuclear Energy Day in Tehran (Reuters)
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Israel’s ‘Shadow War’ on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Gets More Complicated

A number of new generation Iranian centrifuges are seen on display during Iran's National Nuclear Energy Day in Tehran (Reuters)
A number of new generation Iranian centrifuges are seen on display during Iran's National Nuclear Energy Day in Tehran (Reuters)

Israel’s shadow war on nuclear facilities in the depth of Iranian territories is getting more complicated as Tehran announced last Wednesday it foiled a sabotage operation against one of its centrifuge manufacturing sites before Israeli sources confirmed the attack has caused considerable damage.

Quoting an Iranian familiar with the operation and a senior intelligence official, The New York Times said Thursday that the attack was carried out by a small quadcopter drone and it targeted one of the country’s main manufacturing centers for the production of centrifuges used at the two nuclear facilities, Fordow and Natanz.

According to the newspaper, the drone took off from inside Iran, from a location not far from the site and hit the structure. However, the person familiar with the attack did not know what, if any, damage had resulted.

Later, other media outlets hinted that Israel was behind the attack on the Iranian factory, which is believed to produce aluminum blades for use in Natanz and Fordow.

Channel 13 said Israel was behind the attack, describing it as the first operation carried out by Tel Aviv against Iran under the new government of Naftali Bennett.

The Jerusalem Post said that the sabotage operation against Iran’s nuclear facilities has caused major damage, despite Iranian denials.

It wrote that a 2017 Institute for Science and International Security report by founder and director David Alrbight and former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) official Olli Heinonen stated that in 2011, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran revealed the location as one of Iran’s centrifuge manufacturing sites, near the city of Karaj, referred to as the TABA site.

In its article, the New York Times said that although no one claimed responsibility for the attack, the Iranian centrifuge factory, known as the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company, or TESA, was on a list of targets that Israel presented to the Trump administration early last year.

The newspaper said that among the targets presented to Trump’s administration at the time, were attacks on the uranium enrichment site at Natanz and the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November and an attack on the Natanz plant the following April, damaging a large number of centrifuges.



Iran Says It Will Respond to Reimposition of UN Sanctions

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
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Iran Says It Will Respond to Reimposition of UN Sanctions

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)

Iran will react to any reimposition of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear program, the country's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, without elaborating on what actions Tehran might take.

A French diplomatic source told Reuters last week that European powers would have to restore UN sanctions on Iran under the so-called "snapback mechanism" if there were no nuclear deal that guaranteed European security interests.

The "snapback mechanism" is a process that would reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran under a 2015 nuclear deal that lifted the measures in return for restrictions on Iran's nuclear program.

"The threat to use the snapback mechanism lacks legal and political basis and will be met with an appropriate and proportionate response from Iran," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference, without giving further details.

The 2015 deal with Britain, Germany, France, the US, Russia and China - known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - states that if the parties cannot resolve accusations of "significant non-performance" by Iran, the "snapback mechanism" process can be triggered by the 15-member UN Security Council.

"The European parties, who are constantly trying to use this possibility as a tool, have themselves committed gross and fundamental violations of their obligations under the JCPOA," Baghaei said.

"They have failed to fulfill the duties they had undertaken under the JCPOA, so they have no legal or moral standing to resort to this mechanism."

Western countries accuse Iran of plotting to build a nuclear weapon, which Tehran denies.

The United States pulled out of the deal in 2018 under the first administration of President Donald Trump, who called the agreement "weak".

Trump, whose second presidency began in January, has urged Tehran to return to nuclear negotiations on a new deal after a ceasefire was reached last month that ended a 12-day air war between Iran and Israel that destabilized the Middle East.

When asked if Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would meet with Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, Baghaei said no date or location had been set for resuming the US-Iran nuclear talks.