A powerful blast ripped through Iran's Parchin military facility on Sunday, killing at least two people. It is unclear whether the explosion was the result of a work accident or an act of sabotage. Israel, often accused of being behind mysterious explosions and assassinations in Iran, did not comment on the incident. Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that two workers were killed in a fire at an explosives factory in an eastern district of Tehran. (Parchin is located 30 kilometers southeast of Tehran.) The IRNA report cited Iran's Defense Industries Organization and gave no further details. An Iranian opposition website, Saham, described the incident as a strong explosion and said it took place near the sprawling Parchin military facility. It did not give a source for its report, which could not be independently verified. The blast reportedly shattered the windows of homes as far as 15 kilometers (9 miles) away. The International Atomic Energy Agency suspects that Iran may have carried out explosives tests at Parchin around a decade ago that could have been connected to efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The IAEA wants to visit a specific location at the site, but Iran has so far not granted access. Iran claims that Parchin is a conventional military facility and that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. Iran has often accused its enemies, including Israel, the U.S. and Britain, of seeking to sabotage its nuclear activities. However, Iran has yet to officially blame any outside party for the Parchin blast. In March, a senior Iranian official claimed Iranian authorities had prevented attempted sabotage at the Arak heavy-water reactor. Asghar Zarean, the head of security for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said domestic intelligence agencies were instrumental in uncovering the plot, which was not the first attempt to disrupt Iran's nuclear program. He did not give specifics as to the nature of the attempted disruption or its suspected initiator. "Several cases of industrial sabotage have been neutralized in the past few months before achieving the intended damage, including sabotage at a part of the IR-40 facility at Arak," Zarean said. In 2012, The New York Times reported that Israel and the U.S. had cooperated to develop the Stuxnet worm to attack the computer systems that run Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities. Three years ago, Iran said a massive explosion at a military base 45 kilometers west of Tehran killed 17 Revolutionary Guard members, including the head of the elite force's missile program. Iran said the blast was caused by an accident while weapons were being moved. Iran is currently engaged in negotiations on its nuclear program with six world powers -- the U.S., France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China. An interim deal was reached in November 2013, as part of which Iran agreed to dilute its stockpile of enriched uranium in exchange for a partial lifting of international sanctions on Iran. The parties failed to reach a final agreement by a July target date, and they now face a new deadline of November 24. Meanwhile, Iranian representatives were scheduled to hold talks in Tehran on Tuesday, official media reported, their first since the country missed an August deadline for addressing questions about its suspected atomic bomb research. Diplomats told Reuters last week that the International Atomic Energy Agency was expected to make a new attempt soon to advance its long-running investigation into Iran's nuclear program.
