DUBAI: Iran will retaliate against any country that carries out cyberattacks on its nuclear sites, the top of civilian defense said, after a fireplace at its Natanz plant which some Iranian officials said may are caused by cyber sabotage.
The underground Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) is one among several Iranian facilities monitored by inspectors of the International nuclear energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iran’s top security body said on Friday that the explanation for the “incident” at the nuclear site had been determined, but “due to security considerations,” it might be announced at a convenient time.
Iran’s nuclear energy Organisation (AEOI) initially reported an “incident” had occurred early Thursday at Natanz, located within the desert within the central province of Isfahan.
It later published a photograph of a one-story brick building with its roof and walls partly burned. A door hanging off its hinges within the photo suggested that there had been an explosion inside the building.
“Responding to cyber attacks is a component of the country’s defense might. If it's proven that our country has been targeted by a cyberattack, we'll respond,” civil defense chief Gholamreza Jalali told state TV late on Thursday.
An article issued on Thursday by state press agency IRNA addressed what it called the likelihood of sabotage by enemies like Israel and therefore the us, although it stopped in need of accusing either directly.
“So far Iran has tried to stop intensifying crises and therefore the formation of unpredictable conditions and situations,” IRNA said. “But the crossing of red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran by hostile countries, especially the Zionist regime and therefore the US, means strategy...should be revised.”
Iranian officials said they believed the hearth was the result of a cyberattack, but didn't cite any evidence.
One of the officials said the attack had targeted the centrifuge assembly building, about the fragile cylindrical machines that enrich uranium, and said Iran’s enemies had administered similar acts within the past.
Two of the officials said Israel could are behind the Natanz incident but offered no evidence.
Asked on Thursday evening about recent incidents reported at strategic Iranian sites, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters: Clearly we can't get into that.” The Israeli military and Netanyahu’s office, which oversees Israel’s foreign intelligence Mossad, didn't immediately answer queries on Friday.
In 2010, Stuxnet bug, which is widely believed to possess been developed by the us and Israel, was discovered after it had been wont to attack Natanz facility.
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