Iranian authorities thwarted a ‘sabotage’ attack on nuclear building, local media says

Iranian authorities foiled a “sabotage attack” against a civilian nuclear facility, local news site Nournews reported Wednesday.

State news website Press TV reported the same incident, saying that the allegedly targeted building belonged to Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and that the incident “did not result in any casualties or damage.” 

Press TV said that investigations into the alleged attack are ongoing.

Nournews is believed to have links to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, according to The Associated Press. Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to a CNBC request for comment.

The report comes just days after the election of hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi to Iran’s presidency. Raisi has expressed vocal anti-Western sentiment but supports a return to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers.

The developments also come as talks continue in Vienna among Iran and the rest of the 2015 deal’s signatories to revive the agreement, which lifted sanctions on the Islamic Republic in exchange for limits on its nuclear program, but from which the U.S. under former President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

Since then, amid a raft of economically crippling U.S. sanctions, Iran has ramped up its nuclear activities in violation of the deal, spiking tensions with the West, particularly Washington.

Iran is now enriching its uranium to 60% purity, dramatically higher than the 3.67% level permitted under the 2015 deal.

“A country enriching at 60 percent is a very serious thing — only countries making bombs are reaching this level,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told the Financial Times in late May.

“Sixty percent is almost weapons grade, commercial enrichment is 2, 3 (percent).”

Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is solely for civilian purposes and that its has a sovereign right to pursue it.