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WORLD NEWS Thursday 16 January 2025
Israel supplied Iran with centrifuge platforms containing

explosives, top official acknowledges

By JON GAMBRELL He added: “For instance,
Associated Press our friends at the Atomic En-
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates ergy Organization (of Iran)
(AP) — Israel supplied Iran had purchased a platform
with centrifuge platforms for centrifuges in which (the
containing explosives for Israelis) had installed explo-
its nuclear enrichment pro- sive material.”
gram, a top Iranian official Zarif did not elaborate, and
has acknowledged for the the interviewer did not press
first time, underscoring the him on the issue.
sophistication of sabotage However, it marked the first
programs targeting the Is- clear acknowledgment of
lamic Republic. the degree Mossad had in-
The comments by Moham- filtrated Iran’s program.
mad Javad Zarif, a former Iran’s nuclear program pre-
foreign minister who serves viously attacked
as vice president for strate- In July 2020, a mysterious ex-
gic affairs for reformist Presi- plosion tore apart Natanz’s
dent Masoud Pezeshkian, advanced centrifuge as-
appear aimed at explaining sembly, which Iran blamed
to the country’s disaffected This photo released Nov. 5, 2019, by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, shows centrifuge on Israel. In April 2021, an-
public the challenges Iran’s machines in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. other blast tore apart one of
government faces under Associated Press its underground enrichment
crushing Western sanctions sites as President-elect Don- which seeks to change Iran’s two waves of attacks killed halls.
over the program. The com- ald Trump prepares to re- Shiite theocracy from within, 42 people and wounded A few months later, Israel’s
ments also acknowledged enter the White House next often seek different media thousands more, setting the outgoing Mossad chief Yossi
details previously reported week. outlets to reach the public stage for Israel’s invasion of Cohen gave an interview to
in Israel about a 2021 at- Israel placed explosives in as Iranian state television is Lebanon in October. Israeli television in which he
tack on Iran’s underground centrifuge platforms, Zarif controlled by hard-liners. “This is part of the damage all but acknowledged his
Natanz nuclear enrichment says Zarif, who helped Iran reach of sanctions, that you are spies executed the two at-
facility. Zarif made the remarks in an its 2015 nuclear deal with forced to receive (purchas- tacks.
The revelation, released this interview with a program af- world powers, discussed a es) through multiple dealers The show said a saboteur
week, shows the danger still filiated with the Institute for sabotage attack launched instead of buying from a “made sure to supply to the
facing Iran after Israel struck the Compilation and Publi- by Israel’s Mossad intelli- factory directly,” Zarif said. Iranians the marble founda-
the country twice during cation of Imam Khomeini’s gence agency targeting “If the Zionist regime can tion on which the centrifuges
the Israel-Hamas war in the Works, a publicly funded or- pagers and radios used by infiltrate one of the dealers, are placed” that included
Gaza Strip and threatens ganization in Iran. Politicians the Lebanese Shiite militia then it can do anything and “an enormous amount of
to directly target its nuclear from Iran’s reformist camp, Hezbollah in September. The install anything.” explosives.” q

U.K. says a deal on the Chagos Islands won’t be finalized until

Trump is consulted

By SYLVIA HUI posed “a serious threat” to and protects our national Chagos to Mauritius. airbase.
Associated Press U.S. national security. security.” Britain agreed to do so in a A statement issued by the
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s The military base, located Media reports this week draft deal in October, but Mauritian government on
government confirmed on Diego Garcia, the larg- had suggested that officials that has been delayed by Wednesday said the Cabi-
Wednesday that it will not est of the chain of tropical from Britain and Mauritius a change of government net had been “informed
finalize a deal to hand over islands off the tip of India, were hurrying to complete in Mauritius and reported of developments” and
sovereignty of the contest- has supported U.S. military the deal before Trump en- quarrels over how much that talks in London will
ed Chagos Islands to Mau- operations from Vietnam ters the White House. the U.K. should pay for the continue.q
ritius until President-elect to Iraq and Afghanistan. Britain split the islands lease of the Diego Garcia
Donald Trump’s administra- In 2008, the U.S. acknowl- away from Mauritius, a for-
tion is consulted. edged it also had been mer British colony, in 1965,
The governments of Brit- used for clandestine rendi- three years before Mauri-
ain and Mauritius have tion flights of terror suspects. tius gained independence,
been negotiating in recent The official spokesperson and called the Chagos ar-
months to complete an for British Prime Minister Keir chipelago the British Indian
agreement to settle the fu- Starmer said Wednesday it Ocean Territory.
ture of the disputed Indian was “obviously now right” In the 1960s and 1970s Brit-
Ocean archipelago, which for Trump’s administration ain evicted up to 2,000
is home to a strategically to consider any deal. people from the islands so
important U.K.-U.S. naval “It is perfectly reasonable the U.S. military could build
and bomber base. for the new U.S. administra- the Diego Garcia base.
But the agreement was tion to actually consider the Mauritius has long con-
opposed by Trump and his detail and we will obviously tested Britain’s claim to
supporters. The president- have those discussions with the archipelago, and in
elect’s pick for secretary of them,” he said. “We will recent years the United Na- Chagossians Whitney Tranquille, center, attends a protest
state, Marco Rubio, warned only agree to a deal that tions and its top court have outside the House of Parliament, in London, Oct. 7, 2024.
last year that the deal is in the U.K.’s best interests urged Britain to return the Associated Press