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The Latest “Accident” At Natanz

Jul 5, 2020 10:00 am By Hugh Fitzgerald

The three “accidents” in Iran that occurred within one week – from June 25 to July 2 — strongly suggest sabotage by a foreign power. Israel, the most likely country responsible, has – as is its custom – neither confirmed nor denied any involvement. Western experts are convinced that Israel had the capability and the will to launch both a physical attack by F-35s on the Khojir Missile Base, close to the immense Parchin Military Base, and a cyberattack, as well, on a new production facility for centrifuges, at the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. The first attack would have been to destroy both precision-guided missiles and the plant where they were manufactured and tested; the second, analysts believe, was intended to destroy a new centrifuge production plant.

The story of the latest “accident” is here.

A fire and an explosion struck a building above Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility early on Thursday [July 2], a site that US-based analysts identified as a new centrifuge production plant.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran sought to downplay the fire, calling it an “incident” that only affected an under-construction “industrial shed,” spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. However, both Kamalvandi and Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi rushed after the fire to Natanz, which has been targeted in sabotage campaigns in the past.

Like the previous attack, just the week before, at the missile production facility at Khojir Missile Base, which was dismissed as a gas tank explosion, this attack at Natanz was minimized by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization’s spokesman, Behrouz Kamalvandi, who described it as a mere “incident” that only damaged an incomplete “industrial shed.” The fact that both he and Iran’s nuclear head rushed to Natanz belies their studied dismissal.

Kamalvandi did not identify what damaged the building, though Natanz governor Ramazanali Ferdowsi said a “fire” had struck the site, according to a report by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency. Authorities offered no cause for the blaze, though Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency published a commentary addressing the possibility of sabotage by enemy nations such as Israel and the US following other recent explosions in the country.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far has tried to prevent intensifying crises and the formation of unpredictable conditions and situations,” the commentary said. But “the crossing of red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran by hostile countries, especially the Zionist regime and the US, means that strategy … should be revised.”…

Data collected by a US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite suggested the fire broke out around 2 a.m. local time in the northwest corner of the Natanz compound. Flames from the blaze were bright enough to be detected by the satellite from space.

“There are physical and financial damages and we are investigating to assess,” Kamalvandi told Iranian state television. “Furthermore, there has been no interruption in the work of the enrichment site. Thank God, the site is continuing its work as before.”…

The damage was not to a an incomplete “industrial shed,” as Behrouz Kamalvandi claimed, but according to Western analysts Fabian Hinz and David Albright, to a plant that had long been identified, even as it was being built, as a new centrifuge production plant.

The first “accident” — in a recent series of three — to befall an Iranian military site was on June 25, when there was a huge explosion at the Khojir Missile Production Complex. This is where both solid-fuel rockets and liquid-fuel missiles are produced. The size of the blast, which satellites have photographed, was much larger than the Iranians have admitted; it is still not known how much devastation was wrought by the explosion(s) far below the surface. While at first Western analysts were unsure of what caused the blast, they now seem In agreement that it was an aerial bombardment by Israeli F-35s.

Late Thursday, the BBC’s Persian service said it received a strangely-worded message from a group identifying itself as the Cheetahs of the Homeland, claiming responsibility for an attack in Natanz that had already taken place the day, but had not been publicly announced. This group had never been heard of before by Iran experts and the claim has not been authenticated.

The Cheetahs of the Homeland described itself as made up of dissident members of Iran’s security forces. Are they a real group? Why would they have wanted to alert the BBC about the attack? Might it be so that after the fact, the BBC would report that this “group” had known about the attack before news about it had been made public, strongly suggesting that it must have been involved? This plausible conclusion would make the BBC’s listeners more willing to believe that the “Cheetahs of the Homeland” did in fact exist, and posed a real threat to the Islamic Republic. There is always the possibility of it being a fictitious organization, made up by Israel to confuse Iranian authorities, and cause them to be alarmed about possible saboteurs in their midst, leading to mutual mistrust among the members of its security forces, with no one quite sure which of his colleagues was loyal to the state, and which were its sworn enemies.

Analysts have concluded that while F-35s were used to destroy the missile construction plant at Khojir, the new centrifuge construction site at Natanz was destroyed by an Israeli cyberattack. The Iranians have certainly not forgotten the first significant cyberattack in history, that by Israel when — with American help — it launched Stuxnet against Iran’s nuclear centrifuges in 2010, in which a thousand of those centrifuges were made to self-destruct, setting back Iran’s nuclear program by several years. And just this year, after a failed cyberattack by Iran on Israel’s water supply — the attack was intended to add toxic amounts of certain chemicals to the water — Israel far more effectively struck back. On May 9, shipping traffic at Iran’s bustling Shahid Rajaee port terminal came to an abrupt and inexplicable halt. Computers that regulate the flow of vessels, trucks and goods all crashed at once, creating massive backups on waterways and roads leading to the facility. The snarled traffic, both on land and sea, lasted for days.

It is not surprising that Western analysts have unanimously concluded that at Natanz on July 2, an Israeli cyberattack led to the explosion that the Iranians have so far dismissed as another “gas tank explosion.” Of course they know better. Surveying the extensive damage, and knowing full well what caused it, very likely the Iranians are even now planning their cyberattack revenge, but do they really want to again be devastated, and have to suffer in response whatever pain Israel, a country whose mastery of cyberwarfare makes it, in this field, nearly the equal of Russia, China, and the United States, chooses to inflict?

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Filed Under: Featured, Hugh Fitzgerald, Iran, Israel Tagged With: Natanz


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Comments

  1. Mural says

    Jul 5, 2020 at 4:35 pm

    The Avengers strike again. Always good to read about the exploits of the Intelligent folks from Israel in the dark times where it seems that stupid folks have inherited the earth.

  2. Keith O says

    Jul 5, 2020 at 5:01 pm

    When I hear about this sort of operation happening, it brings a warm glow to the old heart!
    This is the equivalent of the school bully poking the new kid in the yard, only to find out the new kid does Kung Fu.

  3. don vito says

    Jul 5, 2020 at 5:59 pm

    “do they really want to again be devastated, and have to suffer in response whatever pain Israel, a country whose mastery of cyberwarfare makes it, in this field, nearly the equal of Russia, China, and the United States, chooses to inflict?” They do! Per their stupid prophet and vile deen.

  4. Martin says

    Jul 5, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    IRAN – 4th “accident ”

    Exlposion at a power plant in the Iranian city of Ahvaz.

    • Martin says

      Jul 5, 2020 at 7:24 pm

      • gravenimage says

        Jul 6, 2020 at 9:06 pm

        Thanks for these links, Martin.

  5. paul budrunas says

    Jul 5, 2020 at 7:33 pm

    I get the warm fuzzies when Iranian thugs feel the wrath of Israel!!! Keep the hits coming to these murderous bastards!!!

  6. gravenimage says

    Jul 5, 2020 at 9:45 pm

    The Latest “Accident” At Natanz
    ………………..

    Interesting…

  7. Aunti Podes says

    Jul 6, 2020 at 7:02 am

    Bravo Israel. Shades on Entebbe – you do the work of the righteous and the dick-heads in the west who lack the courage!

  8. Elliott says

    Jul 6, 2020 at 8:41 am

    The Iranian narrative has this statement:
    “The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran sought to downplay the fire, calling it an “incident” that only affected an under-construction “industrial shed,” spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said.”
    If they had checked with Loretta Lynch, they could have downgraded it to just a “matter”, so I think Bill Clinton said!!

  9. OLD GUY says

    Jul 6, 2020 at 12:24 pm

    Destroying anything that is associated with Iran’s nuclear program is a major plus. Who ever did it a big thank you and thumbs up.

  10. Infidel4evah says

    Jul 6, 2020 at 5:12 pm

    Waiting for the day someone decides to upset the ayatollah’s breakfast by dropping a Tomahawk missle in his bowl of cheerios!

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