David Patrikarakos David Patrikarakos

Israel’s shadow war with Iran explodes into ‘nuclear terrorism’

An Iranian uranium conversion facility (Getty images)

If time flows at an even pace, then history does not. Joe Biden may still be new in the job, but he finds himself at the centre of a war between Israel and Iran in everything but name. After a comparative lull, events are not so much accelerating as whirling around the president, drawing him inexorably in.

Last night, Iranian officials reported that the Natanz uranium enrichment plant – a lynchpin of its nuclear programme – had been the victim of what they described as ‘nuclear terrorism’. According to US officials quoted in the New York Times, an explosion destroyed the independent power system that supplied the centrifuges for enriching uranium. They estimate it could take at least nine months to resume uranium enrichment there, which is a key path to a potential nuclear bomb.

The Iranians first reported a power failure. Now they say it’s Israel. The Israelis, for their part, say nothing. Their media, meanwhile, says it was Mossad. 

On land, sea and in cyberspace, the Israelis and Iranians have been going at it for years

Over the years, I have asked many Israeli officials about ‘operations’ ranging from individual hits to strikes against nuclear reactors. In every case, the response was the same: silence, and a smile. The duration and size of each was entirely dependent on the ego of the person I was asking.

The Israelis have form in this area. Several years ago, along with the Americans, they penetrated Iran’s programme through the use of Stuxnet, a malicious computer worm that successfully targeted the programme’s supervisory control and data acquisition. This caused significant damage to machinery and industrial processes, including the nuclear centrifuges used for uranium enrichment. Once again, no responsibility was ever claimed. Israeli officials positively beamed.

As usual with these things, timing is everything.

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