Iran: Israel Was Behind the Incident at TESA Complex in Karaj

Mohammad Eslami said that Israel carried out a “terrorist” attack on Karaj nuclear facilities and the Agency should first “clarify its position” on this attack. The Karaj site is one of the centers where important stages of centrifuge manufacturing are carried out.

Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, went to the members of the Article 90 Commission of Parliament on Sunday, October 3rd to explain the explosion at Karaj nuclear facilities. In a video distributed on Iranian media, he says: “The Karaj TESA complex faced a terrorist incident by the Zionist regime”.

Eslami stated that the details of this “important incident” have been communicated to the International Atomic Energy Agency and “therefore the Agency should first clarify its position on that incident”.

According to the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, during this attack the site and “in particular the location of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s surveillance cameras” were destroyed.

On June 24th of this year, Iranian media reported a “sabotage act” against one of the buildings of the Atomic Energy Organization. The facility that was attacked belonged to Iran’s Centrifuge Technology Company TESA in the city of Karaj, where new generation centrifuge machines are produced at nuclear facilities for higher uranium enrichment.

First Denial Then Pressure on Agency to Take a Stand

Iran initially denied the extent of damage to this center and the country’s media reported that the attack had been thwarted and caused no damage.

However, the New York Times quoted an Iranian official familiar with the matter as saying that the attack was carried out from inside Iran and from near the factory location. According to the newspaper, contrary to Iran’s claim that it had thwarted the attack, the operation was successful and drones were able to attack the factory.

The Jerusalem Post also reported that the attack “caused severe damage”. Shortly after, satellite images were released showing that parts of the facility had been destroyed.

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, released a new report on October 4th of this year regarding the monitoring of this Agency’s inspectors over Iran’s nuclear activities. According to the Agency’s spokesman, the Islamic Republic “prevented the Agency’s inspectors from monitoring a complex where parts needed for advanced centrifuges are produced”.

The IAEA spokesman’s reference was to the Karaj TESA complex. At that time, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to Vienna, called the IAEA Director General’s report about the Agency inspectors’ lack of access to surveillance cameras at the Karaj TESA complex “inaccurate” and referred to it as an issue “beyond the agreed understandings” in the Iran-IAEA agreement.

He claimed in several Twitter posts that the Islamic Republic’s decisions regarding IAEA monitoring equipment stemmed from “political rather than legal” considerations and therefore the Agency cannot claim to have “a right for itself” to monitor the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities.

Now, however, officials of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and other officials are attributing the Israeli attack as the main reason. Kazem Gharibabadi said in this regard that “since security and legal investigations regarding the Karaj TESA complex are ongoing, the monitoring equipment of this complex is in the category of equipment under technical service” and the TESA complex cameras were not covered by the Iran-IAEA agreement.

Nuclear facilities and scientists have repeatedly been targets of Israeli attacks on sensitive centers of the Islamic Republic. The last attack occurred on August 4th of this year.

“ImageSat Intel”, a research group based in Israel, based on satellite images, said that a severe explosion occurred at the “Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group” facility, which is “a covert IRGC missile base”, causing serious damage to this center.

In this incident, three employees were injured, two of whom, according to news agencies close to the IRGC, lost their lives in the hospital.

According to “ImageSat Intel”, at least one-quarter of a “covert missile base” building has been completely destroyed.

Source: DW