state TV Iran has foiled an attempted sabotage attack against a building belonging to the country’s energy agency, per state television. No casualties or damage were reported following the incident on Wednesday morning, it said. It provided no further details, but said an investigation was under way. There are variety of attacks on nuclear sites in Iran over the past year. Iranian authorities have accused Israel of being behind a number of them. They include two explosions at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant. The first blast, in July 2020, destroyed a workshop manufacturing centrifuges needed to supply enriched uranium, which may be wont to make reactor fuel but also nuclear bombs. The second, this April, reportedly tore apart an underground centrifuge hall. Israel neither confirmed nor denied involvement in either incident, though the previous head of the Mossad administrative body hinted earlier this month that it absolutely was behind the foremost recent one. Iran’s state-run Irna press association said the attempted attack on the building belonging to the energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) was thwarted thanks to the “tight security measures” in situ. “The issue is now under investigation to spot its perpetrators,” it added. “Such acts of sabotage reaching to disrupt Iranian nuclear activities haven’t been ready to disturb continuation of Iran’s nuclear programmes.” It comes as Iran and world powers try to revive a 2015 nuclear deal. The agreement has been near collapse since 2018, when then-US President Donald Trump abandoned it and reinstated sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy. Iran retaliated by gradually breaching agreed limits on its nuclear activities, including those on uranium enrichment. US President Joe Biden wants to rejoin the deal, but he says Iran must return to compliance before the sanctions are lifted. Iran insists that Mr Biden must lift the sanctions first. Envoys of Iran and therefore the five world powers still party to the deal – China, France, Germany, Russia and also the UK – are attempting to agree a compromise at talks in Vienna, with US representatives participating indirectly. After meeting his US counterpart on Wednesday, German secretary of state Heiko Maas said progress was being made but that there have been “still some nuts to crack”, including several technical questions. He also said there was a “good chance” of an agreement even after outgoing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, is succeeded in August by Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner who is deeply against the West. Mr Raisi warned on Tuesday that he wouldn’t allow the talks to be “dragged out” which any agreement needed to ensure Iran’s national interests.
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