Iran claimed on Friday that international surveillance gear mounted at a sensitive nuclear facility may have been hacked by saboteurs ahead of their attack in June, Bloomberg News reported.
The facility, located in Karaj northwest of Tehran, was shaken by a mysterious blast in June that destroyed monitoring equipment.
“There was a sabotage there by Israel and some cameras were damaged and there was some investigation going on,” said Iran’s ambassador to the U.K., Mohsen Baharvand, in comments which appear to shed some light on why the Islamic Republic continues to stonewall International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors looking to reinstall cameras at the Karaj centrifuge workshop.
He added that Iranian judiciary investigators looked into whether the cameras may have been used to aid the attack.
“We just asked IAEA to wait for a time for that investigation to be over,” said Baharvand.
A spokesman from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declined to comment on the allegation of Israeli involvement. The IAEA didn’t respond to calls and emails requesting comment.
While no one claimed responsibility for the June attack, officials told The New York Times that the centrifuge factory, known as the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company, or TESA, was on a list of targets that Israel presented to the Trump administration early last year.
While Iran initially said it had managed to foil what it called the “act of sabotage” on the plant, satellite photos released later showed extensive damage that was caused to the plant.
Last month, it was reported that Iran has resumed production of equipment for advanced centrifuges at Karaj.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has signaled his rising concern over Iran’s refusal to allow new cameras to be installed at Karaj.
In a report released last month, the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran has still not granted its inspectors the access it promised two months earlier to re-install surveillance cameras at the plant in Karaj.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)