Just hours after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani supervised the opening of a centrifuge assembly plant, the site was exposed to an accident, attack or act of sabotage, the background of which has not yet been clear.

The accident was loaded with dimensions of time and space, as it targeted the Natanz facility, which includes the most important Iranian nuclear reactors, and came amid a diplomatic move to push Washington to return to compliance with the nuclear agreement signed in 2015, which aims to prevent Iran from possessing an atomic bomb in exchange for lifting international sanctions.

However, this is not the first time that the Natanz facility has gained a great momentum. For decades, secret reports have been talking about it and subjected to electronic attacks and acts of sabotage that no party adopts, but Tehran always points an accusing finger at the Israelis and the Americans.

Nuclear capabilities

Natanz is located in Isfahan province, 260 km south of Tehran, and it includes a facility for feeding uranium using the centrifugation method and the laser separation method.

In 2003, a leaked report by the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that uranium of the required grade for weapons was found in samples taken from the site, although Iran blamed contaminated imported materials, and an independent report later confirmed what Tehran said.

Iran suspended work on the uranium enrichment reactor at Natanz in 2003, but it later restored it.

In 2006, it was estimated that the Natanz reactor, a large part of which is located underground, may contain about 50,000 advanced gas pipelines, allowing it to produce enough uranium to develop more than 20 nuclear weapons each year.

According to other estimates, the reactor could have 5,000 pipelines for transportation after the completion of the initial stages of the project, a number that enables Iran to produce enough uranium to produce a few nuclear weapons every year if it embarks on that, especially after conducting research on devices. Centrifuges, B2 are the most advanced and efficient of the B1 machines they have been using.

In 2014, Tehran chose a new generation IR-8 centrifuge that allows it to enrich at very high speeds compared to the existing devices.

Besides Natanz, Iran has many nuclear sites and facilities, the most prominent of which are the reactors: Isfahan, Arak, Fordo and Bushehr.

Layout and attack

But Natanz remained the most impetus in Western reporting, and the most vulnerable to targeting from Iran's opponents.

In July 2020, the above-ground part of the Natanz complex was severely damaged by a fire, and weeks later, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed that the accident was the result of an act of sabotage.

At that time, the American New York Times said that the bombing of the Iranian nuclear facility, Natanz, had been planned for more than a year, indicating that it might be detonated by planting an explosive device or by means of a cyber attack.

The newspaper also quoted two US intelligence officials as saying that the restoration of the facility to restore the Iranian nuclear program to what it was before the explosion may take two years.

Officials familiar with some of the mysteries of the explosion in Natanz compared the complexities of this bombing with the sophisticated electronic "Stuxnet" attack on Iranian nuclear facilities a decade ago, which was planned for more than a year.

The Iranian nuclear program was exposed to a cyber attack through the "Stuxnet" virus that struck Tehran's information programs in 2010, causing more than 30,000 computers, including the computers of the Natanz reactor, to malfunction.

As for the American "Stratfor" website, it said at the time that Israel is most likely responsible for the explosion and fire that broke out at the Natanz facility and possibly other similar incidents that occurred near Tehran during that period, including the bombing of the Khojir missile complex on June 26.

Negotiations are not enough

While international powers are trying to push for the return of all parties to abide by the nuclear agreement, yesterday's incident came to say that negotiations alone may not be sufficient to deal with the Natanz reactor.

The attack comes just days after the release of a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirming that Iran has begun enriching uranium in a third series of centrifuges.

"Iran has begun enriching uranium in a third series of advanced centrifuges, at the underground Natanz reactor, in another violation of the agreement concluded by the Islamic Republic with the major powers in 2015," the report said.

According to the statement, the agency confirmed on March 7 that Iran had begun pumping natural uranium hexafluoride into the third series, which includes 174 centrifuges.