IranPower lines to Iran’s enrichment facilities cut, damaging centrifuges
Iran said that power lines to two of its uranium enrichment facilities, Fordow and Natanz, have been cut by explosions, disrupting enrichment work and causing damage to centrifuges; the head of Iran’s nuclear program said that the ranks of the IAEA may have been infiltrated by “terrorists and saboteurs,” hinting that IAEA personnel may have been behind the sabotage; in the meantime, news emerged of a late-August series of tests the Syrian military conducted with tank- and aircraft-fired systems designed to deliver chemical agents; the tests were conducted in the presence of officers from Iran Revolutionary Guard
The covert campaign against Iran’s nuclear weapons program continues.
The chief of Iran’s nuclear program said yesterday that saboteurs tried to disrupt Iran’s uranium enrichment plants by bombing power lines on which the uranium enrichment centrifuges housed in these facilities depend.
Fereydoun Abbasi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI), made his remarks in Vienna at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) annual general conference. Abbasi appeared to hint that IAEA personnel may have been involved in the sabotage, saying: “Terrorists and saboteurs might have intruded in the agency and might be making decisions covertly.”
WorldNews reports that yesterday, 17 August, electric power lines supplying the fortified Fordow uranium enrichment site near Qom were cut with the use of explosives. Abbasi admitted that the power disruption causes damage uranium centrifuges at the site, although he did not provide additional details.
“Then, in the early hours of next morning (Wednesday, 18 August], agency [IAEA] inspectors requested an unannounced inspection. Does this visit have a connection to that detonation?” Abbasi asked, speaking through a translator.
He added that the power lines to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant have also been hit by a blast.
Iran is getting more closely involved with another non-conventional weapon program in the region – Syria’s chemical weapons program. Der Spiegel reports that at the end of August, as the anti-regime insurgency continued to spread, the Syrian military conducted a series of tests of systems designed to carry chemical warheads. The tests were conducted near the chemical weapons research center at Safira, at a site called Diraiham in the desert near the village of Khanasir east of the city of Aleppo.
The tests were conducted with five or six empty shells, fired from tanks and aircraft, designed for delivery of chemical agents.
Iranian officers were flown to site by helicopter to observe the tests.
Spiegel notes that the Safira site is one of Syria’s major chemical weapons development facilities, and that many Iranian and North Korean engineers work there testing sarin, tabun, and mustard gas on animals.
