Iran claims getting closer to cracking 'Natanz nuclear sabotage case'
Iran is slow-playing discussions with the IAEA even as it also sluggishly investigates the Natanz incident.
By SETH J. FRANTZMANHead of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali-Akbar Salehi attends the opening of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference at their headquarters in Vienna, Austria September 16, 2019(photo credit: REUTERS/LEONHARD FOEGER)Iranian investigators continue to beaver away at the case of who sabotaged the Natanz nuclear facility, the country’s Press TV claims. A spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said the security forces have not “identified the perpetrators of an act of sabotage.”The explosion in July was one of several mysterious blasts in Iran. It allegedly damaged advanced centrifuges. Iran’s enriched uranium has now reached 10 times the limit imposed by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, according to reports over the weekend.The Iranian security organizations claim to be painstakingly investigating the incident. They have now had two months to do it. They have detected the agents involved, they claim, and they are working to establish the “motive, methods and manner of sabotage,” Behrouz Kamalvandi of the AEOI said.Now, Iran will build “another shed” at the site, claiming the sabotage won’t stop them. Tehran appears to imply that it is still investigating different scenarios behind the sabotage. It says it will reveal the details at the “proper” time.Iran is slow-playing discussions with the International Atomic Energy Agency, even as it also sluggishly investigates the Natanz incident. It said it granted the international inspectors access to one of two sites that it had allowed for verification purposes. A second site will be opened in September for the inspectors.It is not clear how this satisfies safeguards, since Iran can do what it pleases on its timetable regarding any inspection and thus shift around anything it needs to avoid any controversies. Iran knows the international community doesn’t want to go back to sanctions and an arms embargo, which ends in October, so the global community will play along with Tehran’s actions.
