TEHRAN – Nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi has said Iran views the conduct of an IAEA inspector who was carrying suspicious material while entering the Natanz nuclear enrichment site as an “industrial sabotage”.

In early November Iran confirmed that it had prevented an inspector from the International Atomic Energy Agency from accessing the site because she was carrying suspicious material.

“The Agency’s inspectors must be checked while entering Iran’s sites and in this check the devices showed that one of the inspectors was carrying suspicious material,” Salehi told the Youth Journalists Club in interview published on Saturday.

Salehi said when the inspector was asked about the issue “her answers were not convincing and not acceptable.”

Salehi, a nuclear scientist, said some other things happened that “I cannot reveal their details.”

All these events were “documented” and “filmed” but since the inspector enjoyed diplomatic immunity “we could not hold her,” director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran explained. 

Referring to the history of malicious moves against Iran’s nuclear work in the past, he said the West used Stuxnet virus against the Iranian nuclear industry, committed industrial sabotage, and sold faulty equipment to Iran.

“We see the recent act by the Agency’s inspector is in line with those measures.” 

PA/PA