Iranian Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif has accused Israel of embedding explosives in nuclear centrifuge equipment acquired by Tehran. The discovery was made by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Zarif said in a preview of an online interview for the Hozour (Presence) program. Although Zarif provided limited details, he linked the alleged incident to the broader security challenges faced by Iran under Western sanctions. These sanctions, he explained, force Iran and its allies to rely on third-party intermediaries for procurement, creating vulnerabilities that can be exploited by adversaries like Israel. “Our colleagues had purchased a centrifuge platform for the Atomic Energy Organization, and it was discovered that explosives had been embedded inside it, which they managed to detect,” Zarif said. The timeline of the alleged incident remains unclear. The accusations come against the backdrop of previous incidents involving Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. In April 2021, an explosion caused a power outage at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Iran labeled the event as an act of “nuclear terrorism,” hinting at Israeli involvement, although Israel neither confirmed nor denied the allegations. Israel has a history of cyberattacks and targeted assassinations aimed at disrupting Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which Tehran insists are for peaceful purposes. Zarif linked the centrifuge incident to what he described as a coordinated campaign by Israel to exploit vulnerabilities in equipment procured indirectly due to sanctions. He pointed to a series of explosions in September 2024, which involved communication devices used by Hezbollah in Lebanon. The blasts reportedly killed 32 people and injured over 3,000. “The issue with the pagers in Lebanon turned out to be a multi-year process, meticulously orchestrated by the Zionists,” Zarif said. Mossad operatives purportedly spent a decade embedding explosives into the pager devices distributed via fake companies and intermediaries. In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has suspended the use of communication devices pending inspections, while the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization has banned electronic devices, including mobile phones, on commercial flights. Zarif admitted that sanctions have not only imposed financial hardships but also created significant security risks for Iran. “Instead of being able to order equipment directly from the manufacturer, sanctions force you to rely on multiple intermediaries for such purchases. If the Zionist regime infiltrates even one of the intermediaries, they can do anything and embed anything they want, which is exactly what happened,” he said. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)