Iran’s nuclear ambitions and an onslaught of attacks against them

There was a large scale blackout and power failure at south Tehran’s Natanz Nuclear complex, the country’s largest uranium enrichment facility. Iran’s top nuclear official, Ali Akbar Salehi called the large-scale blackout, an act of nuclear terrorism.

 It later turned out that this black out was a result of a huge explosion which struck Iran’s nuclear centre at Natanz on 11 April 2021.

This incident comes a week after the US and Iran held their first dialogue, under the chairmanship of the British, to work out how to revive the 2015 US-Iranian peace deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which restricts Iran’s nuclear programme, in lieu of relief sanctions. Iran and the US chalked out  roadmap during talks in Vienna, designed to bring them back into compliance with the JCPOA. Detailed talks are scheduled to resume. While the US will have to re-evaluate economic sanctions on Iran, the latter will have to consider steps to bring its nuclear programme in line with the terms of the 2015 deal. These talks may take upto an year to revive the JCPOA.

Uranium — Iran’s bargaining chip

Iran’s nuclear centre at Natanz is one of the country’s most important nuclear facilities because that is where it has the largest number of the most modern centrifuges.

Iran has put all their efforts to produce weapons-grade uranium till date. No country in the western world, including Russia, China, and even India want another Islamic country with nuclear weapons.

To be seen to have the capability of enriching uranium is very important for Iran. The explosion at Natanz took place a day after this year’s celebration of Nuclear Technology Day, where Iran boasted about the country’s progress by showing a video of its progress on national television.

Impact of this operation

According to Iranian scientists, the attack might halt the production of uranium enrichment plants by at least another nine months. Perhaps the US and the group of countries that signed up on JCPOA wanted to create a one year gap, minimum, between Iran being able to progress to weapons-grade uranium. It is for Iran to try and make it shorter because the shorter Iran makes it, the more insecure Israel and its other neighbours will be as it will give Iran a stronger negotiating position at (the) global platforms.

Response to attack

It is widely believed that the Israeli intelligence service Mossad as being responsible for the attack but this certainly would not have happened without America’s help. Since it was one of Iran’s most highly secured nuclear production sites, it is argued that the explosion could not have been possible without an insider’s involvement. It is now clear that this was not done through a cyber attack. An explosive device was smuggled into the facility right into that nerve centre from where it would blow out all of the power facilities in the super-secret plant.

This is a very big humiliation for the Iranian government and Iranian security agency. Even though Iran constantly talked of taking revenge, it has never made the move as yet. Even after its top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed six months ago, it failed to do anything. However, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s call for revenge Monday against the Zionists might change the game.

Punitive Actions to deter Iranian’s Nuclear programme in the past 

In the past decade, at least four top Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed, the most recent being Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an academic physicist and a senior official in Iran’s nuclear programme) last November. Iran has consistently pointed the finger at Israel for this.