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News ID: 6912
Publish Date : 31 October 2014 - 20:14
Arak Heavy Water Tanks Targeted:

Iran Foils Sabotage Amid Nuclear Talks

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iran has foiled an attempt to sabotage tanks used for transporting heavy water, which is needed to run some nuclear reactors, and blames a "foreign country" for the incident, a senior official said.
Asghar Zarean, deputy chief in charge of nuclear protection and security at Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted as saying the bid to damage tanks at the Arak heavy-water production plant occurred two weeks ago.
"There were attempts to cause disruption in storage tanks due to carry heavy water. But these attempts were discovered and foiled before the tanks were filled with heavy water at Arak," Zarean was quoted as saying.
"A foreign country was behind the attempt," he said, without elaborating.  
The Arak plant has been producing heavy water to operate a planned 40-megawatt research reactor nearby that Iran says is intended to make isotopes for cancer and other medical treatments.
But in June it said that it was redesigning the Arak reactor to sharply cut its potential output of plutonium, a gesture apparently meant to address a thorny issue in negotiations with six world powers.
Iran also stopped installing major components in the Arak reactor as part of an interim deal struck with the powers in November 2013, and which expires next month, to curb some sensitive nuclear activity in exchange for limited relief from sanctions. Iran also agreed not to transfer heavy water to the reactor site under this temporary pact.
World powers are negotiating to strike a permanent settlement with Iran by a Nov. 24 deadline.
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly complained of covert U.S. and Israeli attempts to cripple its nuclear program.
Iran's intelligence minister said on Oct. 21 that several people seeking to engage in nuclear espionage "for foreigners" had been arrested in the southern province of Bushehr, where Iran's only nuclear power station is located.
In 2010, Iran's uranium enrichment facilities were temporarily impaired by a virus known as Stuxnet, which was widely believed to have been developed by the United States and the occupying regime of Israel, although no government took responsibility for it.
Iran says Stuxnet and other computer virus attacks are part of a concerted effort by the occupying regime of Israel, the United States and their allies to undermine Tehran's nuclear program through covert operations.
"The enemy should know that it cannot take any action against Iran's nuclear activities," said Zarean. "In fact, Iran is able to find and defuse any sabotage in both hardware and software fields."
In March of this year, pumps at the Arak reactor were subjected to a failed sabotage attempt, Iranian media quoted a senior official as saying at the time.
On Thursday, the White House said the U.S. and the Zionist regime will maintain "unprecedented coordination” over Iran’s nuclear program.
"On Iran, the U.S. delegation reaffirmed our commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” said the statement describing the meeting of the U.S.-Israel Consultative Group, co-chaired at the White House by Susan Rice, the U.S. national security adviser; and Yossi Cohen, her Zionist counterpart.
The statement comes after a week of tensions between the occupying regime of Israel and the United States, sparked by the publication in The Atlantic of an attack by an unnamed Obama administration official who described Zionist PM Benjamin Netanyahu as cowardly.