Iran's Vice-President Ali Akbar Salehi has announced that Tehran is treating today's incident involving Natanz nuclear plant's power grid as an act of "nuclear terrorism":

"Iran condemns this heinous attack and reminds the international community and the [International Atomic Energy Agency] of the need to combat such acts of nuclear terrorism."

The vice-president added that the Islamic republic reserves the right to respond appropriately to whoever Tehran finds is guilty of the attack. At the same time, Salehi described today's incident at the nuclear plant as "evidence" that Iran's enemies were "failing" to impede the country's success in the sphere of nuclear energy and in negotiations, by which he presumably meant talks between the US and Tehran on their both returning to the JCPOA.

A member of Iran's parliament, Malek Shariati Niasar said that Tehran also suspects an act of "sabotage" caused the incident at the nuclear facility. He noted that the power grid incident took place on Iran's National Nuclear Technology Day and also amid attempts to return the US to complying with the Iran nuclear deal and lift its sanctions.

Stuxnet Virus Strikes Again?

Ahead of Vice-President Salehi's announcement, The Jerusalem Post issued a report, claiming that the 11 April incident at Natanz was not an "accident", but the result of a cyberattack, and resulted in greater damage to the facility than Tehran is ready to admit [and] alleged that Israel might be behind the purported cyber intrusion.

If the report true, this will be at least the second time Natanz is hit with a cyberattack in its history. Several cybersecurity companies reported that a virus called Stuxnet ... infected the machines operating the centrifuges, reportedly forcing them to spin at extreme speeds and in effect ripping themselves apart.

Several media reports suggested that Stuxnet was developed jointly by Israeli and American specialists, and released by Tel Aviv against the Iranian nuclear facility. Neither Washington nor Tel Aviv confirmed or denied the report.

An unspecified incident occurred at the electricity distribution network of the Shahid Ahmadi Roshan facility in Natanz earlier in the day. Israeli state broadcaster, Kan Radio, has announced, citing anonymous intelligence sources, that the country's intelligence service, Mossad, had targeted Iran's Natanz nuclear facility with a cyberattack. The announcement did not specify where the intelligence data came from.

Iran's vice-president and atomic energy chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, later in the day told Iranian television that the incident was an act of "nuclear terrorism" but that "opponents of negotiations on lifting sanctions against Iran... had failed."

On Saturday, Iran launched new uranium enrichment centrifuges.

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What was earlier suspected by some to be a cyber attack, appeared to be a powerful explosion that has destroyed the well-guarded internal energy system that fed the underground centrifuges that enrich uranium. Citing sources, the newspaper claimed that the Natanz incident was a "classified Israeli operation".

The explosion is reportedly a devastating blow to Iran's ability to enrich uranium and it could take at least 9 months to resume work in the facility.

The NYT also noted that it is unclear whether the Biden administration was aware of the alleged Israeli operation. Washington has seen "reports of an incident", but the US "had no involvement, and said "we have nothing to add".

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has blamed Israel on Monday for the sabotage of the Natanz nuclear site:

"The Zionists want to take revenge because of our progress in the way to lift sanctions ... they have publicly said that they will not allow this. But we will take our revenge from the Zionists. Israel has publicly announced that it will not allow us to make progress in lifting restrictions, and it believes that it has succeeded in it."

Zarif went on to say that this "sabotage act" at the Natanz nuclear power plant will not weaken Tehran's position in the negotiations.

"The negotiating parties [in Vienna] should know that the Natanz reactor will henceforth be equipped with advanced centrifuges with high [uranium] enrichment capabilities."

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh later said that the Natanz attack was aimed at affecting JCPOA negotiations, as IR-1 uranium enrichment centrifuges were damaged in the incident.

"If the Natanz attack was aimed at slowing down our nuclear production, it failed. Israel will face a response in due time and place. Iran will replace the damaged uranium enrichment centrifuges with more advanced ones."

The identity of the person who disrupted the operation of the power grid at Natanz, as a result of which the electricity supply to a hall was interrupted, has been established and efforts to detain the malefactor is ongoing.

The attack on Iran's Natanz nuclear facility was plotted "long before" the start of the ongoing meeting of the joint commission of the remaining members of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, and was aimed at weakening Tehran's negotiating position at the meetings, The Jerusalem Post has reported, citing sources.

The paper's sources indicated that the attack's planners were uncertain whether Iran and the US would return to serious negotiations about Washington's possible rejoining of the nuclear accord. JPost's sources also gave the outlet the impression

"that the covert war against Iran is ongoing and constant and focused on preventing it from getting close to the nuclear threshold regardless of the world powers' specific policy on the issue at any given moment."

It could take at least nine months for work to resume at the facility.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would not be bound by any possible revival of the nuclear deal, warning Israel's "closest friends" in America that "a deal with Iran that threatens us with annihilation will not obligate us."

Netanyahu, in a joint news conference following talks in Jerusalem with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, said:

"In the Middle East, there is no more serious threat than Iran. Iran has not abandoned its desire to possess nuclear weapons and has not stopped calling for the destruction of Israel. As Prime Minister of Israel, I will never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons to carry out genocide against Israel. Israel will continue defend yourself."

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