Update: Massive Explosion At Parchin Nuclear Facility, Iranian Opposition Leader "It Was Sabotage"

By Josey Wales

It was just yesterday when, in an interview with CNN, Israel PM Netanyahu reminded the world that before there was ISIS, there was Israel’s most loathed enemy Iran, and told Fareed Zakaria that in addition to combating ISIS, Netanyahu said Israel and other moderate Arab states see Iran’s nuclear program as a “twin” challenge that goes hand-in-hand with stopping the spread of radical Islam. From that point on it was only a matter of time before something exploded.

In addition to Netanyahu’s veiled threat, it bears observing that the explosion came just hours before inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Organization were set to tour some of Iran’s nuclear sites.

The latest reports on the Iranian nuclear facility explosion come from theJersulam Post, reporting that a exiled Iranian opposition figure says regime trying to cover up facts of blast at suspected nuclear facility, but sources tell him it was sabotage.

Parchin is a controversial military base where Israel and the International Atomic Energy Agency suspect the Islamic Republic is attempting to develop a nuclear explosive device. IAEA inspectors have not been permitted to enter the site since 2005.

A statement from Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, issued a day before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani – the architect of Tehran’s diplomacy with the big powers – was to address the UN General Assembly, said internal neutron sources such as uranium were used in nuclear implosion tests at Parchin.

The explosion at the Parchin military complex constitutes a failure for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and for Tehran’s military establishment, an exiled Iranian opposition figure said Tuesday.

Two workers were killed in an explosion that took place at a military explosives factory southeast of Tehran, near the suspected nuclear reactor in Parchin, IRNA, the official Iranian news agency, reported Monday.

Dr Alireza Nourizadeh, a senior researcher and director at the London-based Centre for Arab & Iranian Studies told Army Radio that journalists and military sources in Iran have told him that they believe the explosion was an act of sabotage.

“I think Parchin is the most important military compound in Iran and the most guarded military compound. Therefore its a failure for the Revolutionary Guards and for the military establishment,” Nourizadeh said.

The Iranian dissident said that the explosion was so loud that people in east Tehran “thought it was a bombardment.”

Nourizadeh said that, while the state-controlled media was trying to portray the explosion as “something simple that happened during an experiment or something,” he believes, based on his sources, that they are covering up what really happened, as well as withholding the actual number of deaths that occurred in the blast.

He said that the man on the street in Iran is convinced that Israel is behind any explosion of this kind at a sensitive location.

Parchin is a controversial military base where Israel and the International Atomic Energy Agency suspect the Islamic Republic is attempting to develop a nuclear explosive device. IAEA inspectors have not been permitted to enter the site since 2005.

In response to speculation that Israel may have been behind the blast, Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Israel has no idea what happened at Parchin and was getting information on the explosion from media reports.

Yasser Okbi contributed to this report.

Source

Critical reads: more News mainstream Media Chooses To Ignore By Josey wales, Click Here!