Report: Iran arrests suspected spies near nuclear plant
Intelligence minister claims foreign operatives attempted to gather information on Bushehr nuclear plant.
Iran has repeatedly cited signs of what it calls foreign plots to sabotage its nuclear program, which world powers fear could be put to developing an atomic bomb capability and are seeking to curb through high-level negotiations, with a deadline of November 24 for an accord.
The Islamic Republic says it is developing nuclear energy only for electricity and medical treatments.
"Thanks to the vigilance of Intelligence Ministry forces who monitor the moves of the foreign intelligence services, some agents who intended to carry out surveillance and intelligence gathering for foreigners have been arrested," Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alawi Alawi told Fars, without elaborating.
He said Bushehr province was Iran's nuclear hub and therefore "has a special position at the national level".
Although the West suspects Iran has tried to develop the means to assemble a nuclear weapon behind the facade of a civilian atomic energy program, the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power station on the country's Gulf coast is not itself deemed to be a serious proliferation risk by Western states.
In 2010, Iran's uranium enrichment facilities were temporarily impaired by a virus known as Stuxnet, which was widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel, although no government took responsibility for it.
In March of this year, pumps at Iran's planned Arak reactor, seen by the West as a potential source of plutonium that could fuel nuclear bombs, were subjected to a failed sabotage attempt, Iranian media quoted a senior official as saying.
Two weeks ago, an Iranian defence industry body said two workers were killed in a fire at an explosives factory in an eastern district of Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.
Diplomats claimed that the mysterious blast which rocked a top secret Iranian military base was the work of a foreign nation and could have prevented attempts by the Islamic Republic to test unconventional warheads.
An Iranian opposition website, Saham, described the incident as a strong explosion and said it took place near Iran's sprawling Parchin military facility, which is located around 30 km southeast of the capital. It did not give a source for its report, which could not be independently verified
The Parchin facility is a military camp located about 15 kilometers (9.5 miles) east of Tehran, where research is conducted on the production of explosives and missile warheads, as well as activities of the "nuclear weapon group."
Iran and the world powers – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – are trying to negotiate an end to a decade-old standoff that has led to damaging economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic.
The election last year of moderate Hassan Rouhani as Iranian president led to an interim diplomatic accord last November under which Tehran has curbed some sensitive aspects of its enrichment activity in exchange for limited sanctions relief.
It remains unclear whether the two sides will meet the self-imposed November 24 deadline for a permanent deal that would scale back Tehran's nuclear capacity to remove its potential for bomb-making in exchange for a phasing-out of all sanctions.
Ynetnews and Ron Ben-Yishai contributed to this report.
