Security News > 2021 > April > Iran Calls Natanz Atomic Site Blackout 'Nuclear Terrorism'
Iran on Sunday described a blackout at its underground Natanz atomic facility an act of "Nuclear terrorism," raising regional tensions as world powers and Tehran continue to negotiate over its tattered nuclear deal.
Ali Akbar Salehi, the American-educated head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, who once served as the country's foreign minister, offered what appeared to be the harshest comments of his long career, which included the assassination of nuclear scientists a decade ago.
Iran also blamed Israel for the November killing of a scientist who began the country's military nuclear program decades earlier.
The nuclear deal limited Iran to using only IR-1s for enrichment.
Since then-President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, Tehran has abandoned all the limits of its uranium stockpile.
The nuclear deal had granted Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for ensuring its stockpile never swelled to the point of allowing Iran to obtain an atomic bomb if it chose.