Iran Claims It Thwarted an Attack on a Nuclear-Related Factory, As US and Israel Plan Talks on Iran Nuclear Deal

Iran claims it thwarted an attack on a facility that sources said makes centrifuge parts for its nuclear program, as reports say the US is delaying talks with Iran on re-entering the nuclear deal to have time to hear what Israel has to say about it.

A statement by Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday said that there were no casualties or damage to a site that came under attack but which it did not name. The New York Times, however, quoted an unnamed Iranian source saying that the factory was used to produce centrifuges for both the Natanz and Fordow nuclear facilities.

A small quadcopter drone, apparently launched from within Iran, carried out the attack, on the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company, or TESA, reports said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack but according to the NYT report, the site was on a list of potential Israeli targets given to former President Trump and senior officials in early 2020.

Among the other targets on the list, were attacks on the uranium enrichment site at Natanz – an explosion rocked Natanz in July 2020; and the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed in November 2020.

Hezbollah in Lebanon blamed Israel for a drone attack on a facility in Beirut in August 2019 that Israel said manufactured parts for the Iranian proxy’s precision-guided missiles.

Earlier this week, the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency said its nuclear power plant in Bushehr was shut down temporarily due to a “technical fault” and would be back on the grid “in a few days.”

Israel has repeatedly warned over years that it will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.  Iran denies that it is pursing a nuclear weapon but increased its uranium enrichment up to 60 percent in April drawing closer to the 90 percent enriched uranium is needed to build an atomic bomb.

Iran calls Israel the “little Satan” and the US the “great Satan”, and regularly calls for the destruction of Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will make his first trip abroad in that role to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Rome on Sunday. That follows the sixth round of talks between the US and Iran on the nuclear deal.

The US reportedly wants to make time in its schedule to allow for meeting with Israeli officials to talk about its position on the US re-entering the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Quoting an unnamed source, The Jerusalem Post, said Israel’s new government is sending experts to Washington to discuss how to enforce the JCPOA.

It says that Lapid is expected to ask Blinken what he means by saying that the US wants a “longer and stronger” JCPOA.

Israel has been against the JCPOA from the beginning, when then-President Obama signed it in 2015, lifting sanctions on Tehran.  In 2018, President Trump withdrew from the deal and slapped even stronger sanctions on Iran.

Now the Biden administration wants to re-enter the deal.