June 17, 2022
Iran’s Defense Ministry announced that an “accident” May 25 at a “research unit” housed on the giant Parchin military reservation southeast of Tehran killed one engineer and injured another. The New York Times reported that the “accident” was actually a drone strike that targeted a site where Iran develops missile, nuclear and drone technology.
The Times said it got its information from three Iranians with knowledge of the attack and a US official. The US official confirmed that drones had attacked Parchin, but did not say who was behind it or offer any further details.
The New York Times said, “Israel and Iran are increasingly pushing the boundaries in their long-running clandestine war, and the targeting of a drone research facility at Parchin follows a pattern of Israel trying to counter Iran’s growing drone capabilities.”
Israel considers the use of drones by its enemies, especially Iran, as a major threat to its security because drones can evade Israel’s antimissile systems.
In early February, Israel reportedly sent six quadcopter drones containing explosives into a facility near the city of Kermanshah that was Iran’s main manufacturing and storage plant for military drones. Iran never accused Israel of attacking the site, but a few days later fired ballistic missiles at a Kurdish businessman’s mansion in northern Iraq that it said had been used by Israeli agents to plot attacks against Iran.
Neither of these alleged Israeli attacks inside Iran was launched from Israel, which is too far away. They were presumably launched from within Iran. Israel has clearly assembled a group of Iranians to help it out inside Iran, including such actions as the assassinations of four nuclear scientists by placing magnetic bombs on their cars, the killing of a fifth nuclear scientist with a remotely operated machine gun on a highway outside Tehran, and two explosions at the Natanz nuclear complex.
In June 2021, another attack using a drone—the first of what now appears to have been three such attacks—struck the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company, or TESA, in Karaj. TESA is one of Iran’s main manufacturing centers for the production of the advanced centrifuges used at the country’s two nuclear facilities, Natanz and Fordo.
Some may wonder why Israel would want to provoke Iran into attacking with drones. But it was actually Iran that provoked Israel. Iran has sent armed drones on at least two occasions into Israel from Syria.