{"id":9012,"date":"2021-05-02T16:02:12","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T13:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=9012"},"modified":"2021-05-30T10:26:39","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T07:26:39","slug":"tehrans-inability-to-protect-its-nuclear-sites-raises-domestic-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/reports\/tehrans-inability-to-protect-its-nuclear-sites-raises-domestic-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Tehran\u2019s Inability to Protect Its Nuclear Sites Raises Domestic Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When a power failure because of  a sabotage operation shut down Iran\u2019s Natanz nuclear site<\/a> on April 11, Iran was quick to describe it as \u201cnuclear terrorism<\/a>\u201d and to point the finger at Israel<\/a>. However, Iran\u2019s main concern  was to figure out how the sabotage operation took place as various reports pointed to major \u201cintelligence loopholes\u201d in relation to the country\u2019s nuclear sites.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0The former head of\u00a0 the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereydoon Abbasi Davani<\/a> confirmed that the sabotage was technically complex, beautifully planned, and\u00a0 it succeeded because\u00a0Natanz<\/a>\u00a0lacked a proper emergency plan to supply power in the event of a blackout. He questioned how Natanz\u2019s\u00a0 main power supply which is dug deep into the ground to ensure the site remains operational even in the event of disruptions\u00a0could have been targeted. Several thousand centrifuges that enrich uranium were not operational\u00a0 after the sabotage operation,\u00a0delaying Iran\u2019s nuclear program by months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tehran tried to conceal the extent of the sabotage operation\u00a0 by claiming that emergency power was restored at Natanz\u00a0a day after. The sabotage\u00a0operation occurred exactly a day after Tehran<\/a> had boasted that it had reactivated\u00a0 centrifuges that were tampered with in a similar operation targeting Natanz a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is still unclear how\u00a0Natanz\u2019s main power<\/a> supply and its backup were cut off. In Israel, it was blamed on a cyberattack<\/a> or an adhesive bomb<\/a> that may have been detonated remotely. But on April 17, Iran\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence\u00a0 quickly identified the perpetrator of the attack as 43-year-old Reza Karimi<\/a> and said he had fled the country by air<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security breaches at Iran\u2019s nuclear sites have stirred heated debate inside the country. The Secretary of Iran\u2019s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaee<\/a> admitted that a \u201csecurity loophole\u201d resulting from \u201cintelligence contamination\u201d led to the sabotage operation at Natanz.\u00a0 It remains to be seen what these expressions exactly mean, but they suggest that\u00a0 Iran does not have the ability to protect its nuclear sites. A member of Iran\u2019s Parliament Alireza Zakani<\/a> has claimed that Tehran is not even seriously looking into the full dimensions of the sabotage operation.\u00a0 Moreover, nuclear experts in Iran insist that the Iranian government\u2019s record in relation to upholding security at its nuclear sites is poor, and that sabotage operations targeting nuclear sites are likely to occur again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that\u00a0the\u00a0sabotage\u00a0operation was a sign of weakness by Iran\u2019s enemies who are trying to reverse the progress made in ongoing nuclear talks<\/a> with\u00a0 global powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran will have to\u00a0utilize the latest technologies<\/a> to\u00a0avert future sabotage operations. In addition, Iranian nuclear experts\u00a0 say that Iran must strengthen its nuclear security mechanisms<\/a>, remain a few steps ahead of its enemy plans, identify internal and external intelligence\/security loopholes, forecast potential sabotage\u00a0 operations, and improve Natanz\u2019s security protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By and large, Tehran is told to view the latest sabotage operation as a \u201cred\u201d warning sign<\/a>. The Iranian government\u00a0 has also been criticized by \u201chardliners\u201d for\u00a0partaking in nuclear talks while Iran\u2019s nuclear sites are facing sabotage operations.\u00a0Critics of the Iranian political system say the latest sabotage operation\u00a0 suggests that the enemy has already penetrated\u00a0 Iran\u2019s underground nuclear facilities,\u00a0and the country is too divided internally to fix its security problems. In addition, they argue that even modest success at the nuclear talks will not make things easier for Iran\u00a0 as long as Israel\u2019s security interests are much more significant than Tehran\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a power failure because of a sabotage operation shut down Iran\u2019s Natanz nuclear site on April 11, Iran was quick to describe it as \u201cnuclear terrorism\u201d and to point the finger at Israel. However, Iran\u2019s main concern was to figure out how the sabotage operation took place as various reports pointed to major \u201cintelligence loopholes\u201d in relation to the country\u2019s nuclear sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[55,5794,5793],"class_list":["post-9012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-nuclear","tag-nuclear-sites","tag-protect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9012"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9120,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9012\/revisions\/9120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}