According to a report in Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai, Iran believes Sunday's explosion at the country's Parchin military complex was carried out by a foreign power in the region, not by a technical failure, as previously claimed. A senior Iranian official told the newspaper, "Only a foreign state with advanced intelligence capabilities could penetrate the facility and carry out an explosion like this." At the same time, the Iranian opposition is claiming that Iran moved its nuclear operation to a secret location near Tehran to avoid International Atomic Energy Agency inspection. After researching the Parchin incident, a U.S. security institute said Friday it has located, via satellite imagery, a section of the sprawling Iranian military complex where it said the explosion or fire might have taken place earlier this week. Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency on Monday cited an Iranian defence industry body as saying that two workers were killed in a fire at an explosives factory in an eastern district of Tehran. Iran's Defense Industries Organization said the fire broke out on Sunday evening, IRNA said, giving no further detail. An Iranian opposition website, Saham, described the incident as a strong explosion that took place near the Parchin military complex around 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of the capital. It did not give a source and the report could not be independently verified. In Paris, a spokesman for an exiled Iranian opposition group said an explosion occurred late on Sunday in a chemical industry unit in Parchin that deals with the production of gunpowder and that at least four people were killed. The dissident National Council of Resistance of Iran exposed Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy-water facility at Arak in 2002. But analysts say it has a mixed track record and a clear political agenda. The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said it had obtained commercially available satellite imagery in which six buildings at Parchin appeared damaged or destroyed. However, the images that the institute issued indicated the site of the possible blast was not the same location in Parchin where the U.N. nuclear agency suspects that Iran, possibly a decade ago, carried out explosives tests that could be relevant for developing nuclear weapons capability. Iran denies any such aim. The IAEA wants to visit this area of Parchin, but Iran has so far not granted access. Iran says Parchin is a conventional military facility and that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. It has often accused its enemies of seeking to sabotage its atomic activities. The Institute for Science and International Security said its analysis of the satellite imagery from Oct. 7 and 8 indicated an explosion could have taken place at a southern section of Parchin. "Several signatures that coincide with those expected from an explosion site are visible here," it said on its website. "Two buildings that were present in August 2014 are no longer there, while a third building appears to be severely damaged. In total at least six buildings appear damaged or destroyed."
This information was revealed by an official in the Mujahedin-e-Khalq group, ahead of next week's meeting in Vienna between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, outgoing European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Meanwhile, in an unconfirmed report Friday, the Kuwaiti paper cited American and European sources as suggesting that Iran had ordered Hezbollah to attack Israeli troops at the border with Lebanon in retaliation for the Parchin strike.
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שיתוף כתבה
Report: Blast at Iran military site -- intentional sabotage
Top Iranian official tells Kuwaiti newspaper, "Only a foreign state with advanced intelligence capabilities could penetrate the facility and carry out an explosion like this" • U.S. security institute says it has located damaged site via satellite imagery.