- A major Iranian nuclear facility was damaged Thursday in a fire that appears to have been the result of sabotage.
- A previously unknown group calling itself “Homeeta Cheetahs”, apparently a dissident group, claimed responsibility for the incident.
- The incident, which occurred at Iran’s largest uranium enrichment facility, occurred amid historic tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program.
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An Iranian nuclear facility appears to have been the target of sabotage, and a previously unknown and self-declared dissident group calling itself the “homeland cheetahs” claimed responsibility, the New York Times and BBC News reported Thursday.
A fire on Thursday caused extensive damage to a building at the Natanz Nuclear Complex, Iran’s largest uranium enrichment facility.
An unidentified intelligence official from the Middle East told the Times that the explosion was the result of an explosive placed in part of the facility where the centrifuges are balanced before operating. Centrifuges are tube-shaped machines that help enrich uranium.
Although sabotage is suspected, it is also possible that Thursday’s explosion was an accident. However, since the complex is not known to contain combustible materials that could lead to such an explosion, experts cautioned against accepting any of the conclusions too soon.
David Albright, president of the Institute of Science and International Security, told the Times that the installation of the assembly “would not be prone to this type of accident.”
“They get subcomponents and put them together. You wouldn’t have a lot of flammable liquids. Assembly operations are not dangerous per se,” said Albright. “It looks like it could be sabotage. It is a high value site for the Iranians. It is a very important building.”
The Iranian Atomic Energy Agency (AEOI) acknowledged that there was an incident at the facility, but did not consider it sabotage. AEOI spokesman Behruz Kamalvandi said there was an incident in “one of the industrial warehouses under construction.” No fatalities were reported and no concerns were raised about radioactive contamination.
A group calling itself the “homeland cheetahs” sent a statement to Persian BBC journalists before AEOI publicly announced the incident. The previously unknown group described itself as “clandestine opposition to Iran’s security apparatus” and claimed it attacked the building. Very little is known about the group, including whether it really exists.
The damaged building is working on advanced centrifuges that allow for faster uranium enrichment.
The incident occurred months after President Donald Trump ordered a drone attack that killed Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani, raising fears of a new war in the Middle East.
The Trump administration has been hitting Iran with sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign designed to pressure Tehran to negotiate a stricter version of the nuclear deal from which the President withdrew the United States in May 2018. As part of the agreement, Iran agreed to reduce its number of centrifuges by two thirds. It also agreed to reduce its enriched uranium arsenal by 98% and to limit uranium enrichment to 3.67%.
Iran has insisted that its nuclear development is for civilian purposes only, but the governments of the US and Israel have repeatedly expressed skepticism, which is part of what inspired Trump to withdraw the US from the Iranian nuclear deal. That said, the UN nuclear watchdog continually discovered that Iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal, which was designed to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, even long after Trump withdrew the United States from the deal.
Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal, which was orchestrated by the Obama administration, was controversial and met with criticism from U.S. allies. The decision raised tensions between Washington and Tehran to historic heights and prompted Iran to begin to move away from the stipulations of the historic pact.
Following Trump’s decision to eliminate Soleimani in early January, Iran announced that it would no longer comply with any of the limitations of the agreement on its nuclear program, including restrictions on uranium enrichment, the amount of uranium stored, and research and the development.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently warned the United Nations Security Council about Iran’s spin work.
While pushing for the extension of an arms embargo to Iran that expires in October, Pompeo said Iran is “accumulating dangerous knowledge.”
“Late last year, Iran announced that its scientists were working on a new centrifuge, IR-9, which would allow Tehran to enrich uranium up to 50 times faster than IR-1 centrifuges allowed under the [2015 nuclear deal]”Pompeo said before asking the council to hold Iran accountable.”
Thursday’s incident came less than a week after an explosion near the Parchin military complex. Iranian authorities dismissed the incident as a gas explosion at the base. But satellite photos showed that the explosion occurred at a missile production facility near Parchin, the New York Times reported.
