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>https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/world/middleeast/iran-israel-nuclear-site.html
After Nuclear Site Blackout, Thunder From Iran, and Silence From U.S.
His comments highlighted the risk of escalation in a yearslong shadow war between Iran and Israel, one that is taking place in the deserts of Natanz, along the shipping routes of the Persian Gulf and in the leafy suburbs of Tehran, where Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the leader of what American intelligence officials say was Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program, was killed in December by a remote-controlled gun as he drove to his weekend house.
For the Iranians, the attack this weekend was another humiliating indication that its program had been penetrated by spies and saboteurs, who have carried out a series of brazen attacks. While Israel usually stays silent when attacks like this happen, Israeli news outlets, citing intelligence sources, attributed this one to the Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.
An intelligence official who asked not to be identified in order to discuss clandestine operations said an explosive device had been smuggled into the Natanz plant, was detonated remotely, and took out both the primary and backup electrical systems.
The head of the Iranian Parliament’s energy committee, Fereydoun Abbasi, appeared to confirm that account in an interview with state television on Monday.
“The enemy’s plot was very beautiful,’’ he said. “I’m looking at it from a scientific point of view. They thought about this and used their experts and planned the explosion so both the central power and the emergency power cable would be damaged.”
A spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said Monday that the blast had exposed a hole so big that he fell into it, injuring his head, back, leg and arm.
Just how much damage was done is unclear.
Intelligence officials suggested that it would require many months for Iran to undo the damage.
Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said emergency power had been restored at Natanz on Monday and enrichment had not stopped at the facility. But it may be running at a fraction of the level is was before.
“A large portion of the enemy’s sabotage can be restored, and this train cannot be stopped,” he told the Iranian news media on Monday.
But the attack, the latest in a series of major security breaches in the past year, has led to finger-pointing in Tehran and accusations of infiltration in the highest ranks of Iran’s security apparatus. The intelligence unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is responsible for both securing nuclear sites and protecting nuclear scientists.
Mr. Moghtdaie said his committee would investigate what he called “very obvious security infiltrations.”
Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said the entity responsible for safeguarding Natanz against attacks must be held accountable. The attacks, he said, could produce “catastrophic consequences” for Iran’s reputation, economy and security.
And on social media, conservative commentators called for an overhaul in the leadership of the Atomic Agency and for the Supreme National Security Council to take over the nuclear file from the Foreign Ministry.
“The Natanz incident is either treason with infiltration or without,” tweeted one commentator, Seyed Peyman Taheri. “The cracks of your incompetence are being filled. Fix the holes.”
Some American officials, declining to speak on the record, expressed concern on Monday that the attack would drive the nuclear program more deeply underground, where it would be hard to reach. Iran already headed in that direction years ago, when it built a small plant deep inside a mountain near the city of Qum.