November 08-2013
Iran now says the men caught trying to sneak into a nuclear installation were not saboteurs but simple thieves trying to steal some scrap iron on the grounds.
Early in October, Ali-Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, announced that four men had been arrested trying to break into a nuclear installation to sabotage it. Others have cited the case as proof of foreign animosity for Iran.
But Intelligence Minister Mahmud Alavi says Salehi jumped to a conclusion and was wrong.
Alavi said last week, “These men were not saboteurs. There was scrap iron and steel sitting on the premises. They cut holes in the fence surrounding the site intending to steal the scrap and sell it on the market.”
Alavi said, “These people are thieves and not nuclear saboteurs. They were residents of the village near the power plant—and they were repeat offenders.”
Neither Alavi nor Salehi identified the nuclear site, but the reference by Alavi to “the power plant” indicates the target was the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the sole nuclear power plant in Iran.