A damaged building inside Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, July 2, 2020 (Credit: West Asia News Agency, via Reuters).
Four mysterious explosions in the past ten at different sites linked to Iran's nuclear program have baffled international security experts, with some blaming the incidents on an Israeli cyber-attack, others chalking them up to coincidental accidents, and yet others suggesting sabotage by rogue elements within Iran’s security apparatus.
The first explosion occurred on June 26th, and was large enough to be seen from the capital of Tehran. The Iranian regime initially claimed it was an accidental explosion at an underground facility on the Parchin military base, which was previously exposed as a clandestine nuclear site. However, satellite imagery confirmed damage to a missile production facility near Parchin, which may be connected to the base by underground tunnels. Kuwaiti media outlet Al-Jareeda citied anonymous Israeli security officials who claimed that Israeli F-35 stealth fighter jets struck the missile factory, setting back production by two months. Photographic evidence proved that an explosion had occurred at the site, not a fire caused by a gas leak. There was no confirmation of casualties, and Israeli officials refused public comment.
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The second explosion occurred on the 30th of June inside the underground levels of the Sina At’har medical facility inside in Tehran. Iranian authorities reported fifteen women and four men were killed in what was again attributed to a gas leak and explosion involving oxygen tanks. It is unclear whether the underground levels of the facility were truly being utilized for civilian medical care or for a clandestine military application. Its is also still unclear whether the explosion was really accidental or an act of sabotage.
The third explosion occurred on July 2nd at the Natanz nuclear facility. At first, no reports of casualties were published and Iranian authorities downplayed the damage. But after several media outlets reported the likelihood of a “kinetic” cyber attack (i.e. a cyber attack on machinery, causing melt down, fire or explosion), the regime changed its tone. Iranian civil defense chief Gholamreza Jalali made a veiled threat against the nation of Israel on state television yesterday, saying, “If it is proven that our country has been targeted by a cyber-attack, we will respond.” Natanz is the production site of most of Iran’s advanced centrifuges, and was the target of the infamous Stuxnet attack in 2010, now attributed to the United States and Israel, which delayed the Iranian nuclear program by years.
The fourth incident occurred today at at power station in the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan. The cause of a reported fire and the extent of damage are yet unknown, as the regime is yet again claiming that the incident was accidental. An Arab separatist movement has plagued Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq, for over 40 years.
As details have continued to surface regarding the nature and timing of these incidents, it has become increasingly clear that that they are not accidental. Some analysts have suggested that they are retaliation by the Israeli government for alleged Iranian cyber-attacks against Israeli civil infrastructure last month. Others have pointed to the recent acceleration of Iran’s nuclear program, and the repeated stance of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s government that Iran will not be allowed to achieve “breakout” capacity in the construction of a nuclear weapon. Still other Farsi-language sources have republished a statement from a organization named the “Homeland Cheetahs,” which claimed responsibility for the Natanz attack before it was reported in the media on July 2, stating that it had sabotaged an above-ground facility at Natanz so that the Iranian regime could not deny it. The group is purportedly made up of dissidents within Iran’s security apparatus, although its existence has not been confirmed by any global intelligence agency.
Iranian hegemony across the Middle East and its well-documented nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs are on a regional collision course with Israeli, Saudi and Egyptian determination to prevent Tehran from achieving its objectives. We ask our global partners to join us in prayer, that the Lord would restrain the outbreak of war in the Middle East, that the plots and schemes of demonically-inspired regimes would be exposed and dismantled, and that divine protection would be granted to the people of Iran, Israel, and the nations in between.
Maranatha.
