Iran has arrested four suspects in an attempt to sabotage one of its nuclear plants, Ali Akhbar (photo) the Atomic Energy Organization Chief said on Sunday.

“Some time ago, we uncovered sabotage activities by several people at a nuclear plant,” Saleh said in comments carried by Iranian Mehr News Agency (MNA) according to Agence France-Presse.

“We let them continue their activities so that we could gather more intelligence.

“We arrested them at the appropriate moment and their interrogation is ongoing,” the Iranian agency quoted him as saying without specifying which plant was targeted.

In August last year, saboteurs blew up power lines supplying Iran's underground uranium enrichment plant at Fardo outside the central city of Qom.

In 2010, a U.S. cyber-attack, reportedly carried out in collaboration with Israel, hit Iran's nuclear facilities. The Stuxnet virus was tailored specifically to target uranium enrichment facilities.

Western countries along with Israel suspect that Iran's nuclear program is designed to build an atomic bomb but Teheran denies the charge and says its program is “peaceful.”

Iran accuses Israel and the West of trying to sabotage is program mainly through cyber-attacks and of being behind the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. In recent years, it has detained a number of alleged U.S. or Israeli agents accused of spying on, or attempting to sabotage, its nuclear program.

 

Source: AFP; MNA