TEHRAN - The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has detained members of a spy network planning to sabotage the underground Fordow nuclear facility, the official news agency IRNA reported on Monday.

The plot involved an agent paid by Israel attempting to approach a person working with advanced IR-6 centrifuges at the plant, the news agency said.

The agent was provided with secure communications and paid in cash and cryptocurrencies to approach the plant employee using a contact at a cover company in Hong Kong as a mediator who was in reality an Israeli spy officer, according to Press TV.

After approaching the plant employee, all wages are exchanged in cash and digital currency so that no traces remain. 

The Israeli operative then contacts the plant employee through the agent and orders software as he gradually moves to approach him himself. 

The plant employee continues to cooperate after knowing about the real identity of the Israeli spy, but that is when all their moves are being monitored by the IRGC's intelligence arm.

According to IRNA, the IRGC Nuclear Command was able to prevent one of the major sabotages of the country's nuclear facilities in cooperation with the IRGC's Counterintelligence Command. 

The sabotage attack was set to happen before Norouz which marks the end of the Iranian year on March 20.

Iran's nuclear program has been the subject of sabotage for more than a decade. Several Iranian scientists have also been assassinated by Israel.

The last Iranian scientist assassinated by Israel was Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. He was assassinated in a convoy outside Tehran on November 27, 2020, in a complicated operation. A satellite-controlled machine-gun with "artificial intelligence" was used to assassinate the scientist, IRGC deputy chief Brigadier General Ali Fadavi said at the time.