Khatibzadeh: If Israel had sabotaged Natanz, we would have told the people
Saeed Khatibzadeh, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, has said that if the recent events in Natanz were Israeli "sabotage," it "would have been reported to the public."
Answering reporters' questions at a press conference on Monday, December 5, he emphasized that "I have nothing more to add than what the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the Secretariat of the National Security Council have said" about hearing the sound of an explosion in Natanz.
Iranian media reported on Saturday, December 4, that an explosion was heard and a light was seen in the sky over Natanz and near Iran's enrichment facilities. Shahin Taghikhani, a spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran's military, said the sound was related to a test of one of the region's missile systems.
The Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that locals who had gathered in the village of Abbas Abad, Badrud, to observe and be curious about the noise and smoke, said they saw an object and a bright light in the sky.
A number of Iranian news agencies have described the launch of this missile as a planned event aimed at testing Iran's defense capabilities in the Natanz region, where Iran's nuclear facilities are located.
Over the past 18 months, two explosions have occurred at the Natanz site, for which Iranian officials have pointed the finger of blame at Israel.
The Jewish Chronicle, a weekly Jewish magazine in Britain, also claimed on December 1 that Mossad, the Israeli spy agency, was able to carry out three sabotage plans at Iranian nuclear sites in less than two years by employing 10 Iranian nuclear scientists, two of which were explosions at the Natanz site.
Following the explosion at the Natanz enrichment facility on April 12 of this year, Fereydoun Abbasi, head of the Iranian parliament's Energy Commission, said that over the past 15 years, five "major" explosions had occurred at the Natanz nuclear facility, and in addition, numerous small incidents had also occurred at the facility.
Iran is currently in the midst of talks with world powers to revive the nuclear deal. The seventh round of talks resumed last week after a five-month hiatus. But Western diplomats have called the latest talks “disappointing and worrying.”
Source: Radio Farda
