July 24, 2020
A building used to assemble Iran’s newest and swiftest centrifuges at Natanz was bombed July 2 with extensive damage done to Iran’s plans to eventually boost enrichment. A previously unknown group, calling itself the Cheetahs of the Homeland, claimed responsibility in emails sent to BBC Farsi.
While anyone can make such claims after an attack, these emails were received at BBC Persian hours before Iran announced the building had been damaged, giving the claim credibility. The Islamic Republic initially said the damaged building was nothing but a “shed” that was still under construction and was “empty.” It did not say the “shed” was bombed, just that it burned. It used the word “accident,” and never suggested there had been sabotage.
Later the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) said it had completed an investigation and knew exactly what had caused the “accident,” but would not announce its findings for now due to “security considerations.” In succeeding days, various other officials with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and the Foreign Ministry contradicted the SNSC and said the investigation was still ongoing. Westerners who follow Iran’s nuclear program said much of what Iran said about the building was nonsense. First of all, it was a large structure, not a shed. Iran even disproved its own claims by releasing photographs that showed a sprawling twostory structure.
While the AEOI said the building was damaged by fire, the photos showed doors blown outward off their hinges, indicating an explosion inside the building. Parts of the roof were also blown off the building, a further indication that the building was damaged by an explosion that occurred inside and not just by fire. Iran showed photos taken from the northeast. Satellite photos later showed the main damage was centered on the northwest corner and that about threequarters of the building had been burned.
Once again, Iran was using photos to minimize the appearance of damage. It did the same thing weeks earlier when the Navy fired a missile at one of its own ships; the photo released by the military showed the aft end of the vessel, the one part that did not suffer much damage.
While the AEOI said the building was still under construction, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) in Washington, DC, said the AEOI had held an event inaugurating the building two years ago in June 2018 and released photographs then showing it was the site where Iran would assemble new and more capable centrifuges that would later be installed in the nearby underground hall where most of Iran’s centrifuges are placed to enrich uranium.
The assembly of centrifuges was allowed under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that governs Iran’s nuclear program. But it cannot use any more advanced centrifuges than the IR1 to actually enrich uranium until 2026, according to the JCPOA. ISIS said the assembly building must be extremely clean to assemble centrifuges and that an explosion that kicked up a lot of dust and dirt would likely end all assembly operations until the damage could be repaired and site completely cleaned.
The Supreme National Security Council said only that the damage had been “limited.” It said there were no nuclear materials in the “shed,” and that likely was true as a site used to assemble centrifuges has no need for nuclear materials. The AEOI, however, said since the “shed” was still under construction no operations at Natanz would be delayed by the damage at the site.
David Albright, president of ISIS, told The New York Times the assembly operation has no need to use any explosive materials, an indicator that the explosion might be the result of sabotage. However, ISIS said the cause could be an accident, sabotage with a bomb or the result of a cyber attack that caused a leak of gas that later exploded.
ISIS said the center point of the explosion appeared to be near where a gas pipe enters the building. Albright said the satellite photos showed the damage was so extensive that the building would likely have to be dismantled and work on the structure started from scratch. It took six years to build the structure that has now been destroyed, but building a replacement should not take as long. The Mojahedin-e Khalq denied any responsibility for the bombing.
The name of the group that claimed that responsibility, Cheetahs of the Homeland, struck many as odd. Cheetahs are an endangered species in Iran and the term is used as a nickname for the national soccer team. There was, of course, immediate speculation that the United States and/or Israel were behind that damage. Three officials told Reuters anonymously that they believed the damage was the result of a cyber attack. But no one speaking on the record accused any foreigners of attacking the site. The Cheetahs of the Homeland said it had conducted other actions that the regime had failed to announce.
It said it decided to attack an above-ground building this time because the regime could not cover up such an attack. It said the group’s members come from the regime’s security organizations that oppose the regime. Most speculation in Iran centered on Israel. However, Israel does not historically have front groups claim responsibility for its actions. On the contrary, it prefers just to let things simmer and to bask in the speculation that it is responsible. After the Natanz incident, new Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz responded mysteriously: “Not every incident that transpires in Iran necessarily has something to do with us.” He then added, “All those systems [at Natanz] are complex. They have very high safety constraints and I’m not sure they [Iran] know how to maintain them.”
The Iranian government did not say when the explosion occurred. However, a social media user said he was on the road near the Natanz site at 2 a.m. July 2 when he heard a large explosion and saw the sky light up. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the American weather bureau, said one of its satellites detected light from a huge fire at Natanz at 2 a.m. that day. Late last year, Iran announced it was building a new centrifuge, designated IR-8, which it said would be 50 times faster than the IR-1, the only centrifuge that Iran currently uses.
But ISIS said the IR-8 has failed and the centrifuges being assembled in the “shed” were older versions. ISIS said a photograph released by Iran in 2018 showed the casings for the IR-2m, IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges in the building. But under the JCPOA, Iran can only enrich with the IR-1 centrifuge until 2025.