Iran: Siemens sabotaged nuclear equipment

Company denies claims by Iranian lawmaker, who says it sold Iran nuclear-related equipment containing small explosives.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST STAFF
head of Iran's Atomic Energy Org. Abbasi Davani_311 (photo credit: Reuters)
head of Iran's Atomic Energy Org. Abbasi Davani_311
(photo credit: Reuters)
Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi on Saturday accused German company Siemens of sabotaging its nuclear program, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA)reported.
According to the news agency, citing Boroujerdi, Iranian security experts discovered small explosives embedded in equipment Tehran bought from Siemens for its nuclear program.
DPA quoted Boroujerdi as claiming, “the equipment was supposed to blow up after installation in order to destroy our [nuclear] systems.”
Siemens immediately dismissed the allegations, with DPA quoting company spokesman Alexander Machowetz as saying, “we have no business dealings related to the Iranian nuclear program.”
The United Nations has banned the sale of nuclear-related equipment to Iran. Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a German-Iranian expert, told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday that the Iranian press is filled with coverage of the accusations against Siemens. He said that Boroujerdi is not only a lawmaker but the chairman of Iran’s commission of national security.
Wahdat-Hagh reviewed the Iranian state-controlled Persian-language press reports and said that Boroujerdi accused the International Atomic Energy Agency–the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog group–of “always reporting false things about Iran’s atomic program.”
Click here for full Jpost coverage of the Iranian threat
Click here for full Jpost coverage of the Iranian threat
Iran “is searching for a pretext in order to avoid control inspections by the IAEA and to quickly build an atomic bomb,” said Wahdat- Hagh, adding that this a “provocation” by Iran.
Iranian news outlet asremrooz.ir, which is controlled by the regime, on Saturday cited a statement last year from Qolam Reza Jalali, who represents an Iranian defense organization.
He accused Siemens of delivering to the “enemies of Iran information” via its SCADA Siemens program to help the Stuxnet virus infiltrate Iran’s facilities.
SCADA is an abbreviation for supervisory control and data acquisition and serves as an industrial control computer mechanism.
The asremrooz.ir report added that “Siemens has now sent a second system of equipment to create damage for Fordow but was found in a timely matter” to avoid a disruption.
The latest allegations of sabotage come less than a week after Iranian Atomic Energy Organization chief Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani claimed that explosives were used to cut the electricity power lines to Iran’s Fordow underground enrichment plant on August 17.
Abbasi-Davani also told the annual member state gathering of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that “the same act” had been carried out on power lines to Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant near the central town of Natanz, without giving a date.
He concluded by accusing the IAEA of a cynical approach and mismanagement and suggested that “terrorists and saboteurs” might have infiltrated it.
Iran has previously accused Israel and the West of being behind the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and of trying to damage its nuclear program in other ways, such as cyber attacks.