IRGC finds ‘identified person responsible’ for explosion at nuclear facility

IRGC ‘identified person responsible’ for explosion at nuclear facility: media

2020-07-23

Archived photo of the Natanz Nuclear Facility in Iran.

BEIRUT, LEBANON (4:00 P.M.) – A Persian-language news site stated on Thursday that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards obtained information identifying the person who caused the explosion at the Natanz nuclear facility on July 2nd.

According to the news site “Iran Watch”, “Ershad Karimi, who was a contractor for many years and responsible for launching the uranium enrichment course at the Natanz nuclear plant in the central Isfahan province, is the person involved in the bombing.”

The news site said that “Ershad Karimi detonated the centrifuge hall with his team, and caused great damage to the country’s nuclear industry as well as the prestige of the system,” noting that “Karimi was supported by the Isfahan Intelligence Agency to work as a contractor at the Natanz nuclear plant.”

A member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament, Deputy Jawad Karimi Qadousi, revealed the cause of the explosion of the Natanz nuclear site.

The Iranian media quoted Qadousi as saying that “our final conclusion is that the security breach and the crossing of security barriers caused the Natanz incident.”

Qadousi, who had previously visited the Natanz site with other members of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament, denied the existence of a “suspicious object that hit the site from outside the facility”, saying that “if the targeting was from outside the site, there would be residual pieces, but investigations did not show There is absolutely nothing.”

The American newspaper “New York Times” quoted two American intelligence officials as saying that “renovating the facility to restore the Iranian nuclear program to what it was before the explosion, may take two years,” expecting that the bombing took place through an explosive device or via an electronic attack.

The newspaper said, “Western officials expect some kind of retaliation from Iran for the bombing, which may be by targeting American forces in Iraq, or through electronic attacks, or by targeting vital facilities such as the American financial institution or the Israeli water supply system.”

The Iranian authorities have yet to comment on these claims.