Israel once planted an explosive inside a centrifuge equipment purchased by Iran for its nuclear programme, but it was detected by Tehran, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif has said. Zarif was the foreign minister when Iran and world powers agreed to the 2015 nuclear deal and is now vice president for strategic affairs.
"Our colleagues had purchased a centrifuge platform for the Atomic Energy Organisation, and it was discovered that explosives had been embedded inside it, which they managed to detect," Zarif was quoted by Iran International. He made the startling revelation during the Hozour (Presence) online programme.
He did not give other details of the incident. Though neither Iran nor Israel has acknowledged the incident, Israel has repeatedly managed to infiltrate the Israeli supply chain like in 2021 when it managed to trigger an explosion in Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment site which caused a power failure. Iran had decried this as an act of "nuclear terrorism".
Israeli spy agency Mossad too repeatedly carried out cyberattacks and assassinations aimed at Tehran's nuclear programme, including the highly specialised operation which saw the agency kill top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020 using a computerised machine gun.
Zarif also detailed how Israel manages to easily rig the supplies heading to Iran. He believes the sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic force them to turn to intermediaries. This results in vulnerabilities in the supply chain, which Israel takes advantage of. "If the Zionist regime infiltrates even one of the intermediaries, they can do anything and embed anything they want, which is exactly what happened."
A recent incident of Israel exploiting the supply chain flaws saw a series of explosions rocking Lebanon. Israeli agents reportedly infiltrated the suppliers of Hezbollah's communication devices in September 2024, Zarif said. Over 5,000 pagers and 1,000 walkie-talkies exploded causing the death of at least 32 people.
"The issue with the pagers in Lebanon turned out to be a multi-year process, meticulously orchestrated by the Zionists," he added.
Israel has not taken credit for the attacks, but intelligence sources pin it on Mossad.