Iran declines to disclose cause of fire at nuclear site

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iranian investigators have determined the cause of a fire at the Natanz nuclear plant, a spokesman for Iran's top security body said on Friday, July 3, while declining to immediately release details of the findings over "security reasons", Al Jazeera reports.

The National Security Council's statement came as Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran's civilian defence, told state television that Tehran would retaliate against any country that carries out cyberattacks on its nuclear sites.

Reuters News Agency, citing three Iranian officials, said the fire at Natanz, which occurred early on Thursday, was caused by cyber sabotage.

But Reuters said the officials did not offer evidence to back the claim.

The Natanz uranium-enrichment site, much of which is underground, is one of several Iranian facilities monitored by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation initially reported an "incident" had occurred early on Thursday at Natanz, located in the desert in the central province of Isfahan. It later published a photo of a one-storey brick building with its roof and walls partly burned.

The IAEA said none of its inspectors was at Natanz at the time of the fire and "that the location where the incident occurred does not contain nuclear materials".