Siemens Accused of Sabotaging Iranian Nuclear Equipment

 

Iran is accusing German engineering and electronics company Siemens of booby-trapping devices it has purchased for its nuclear program.

Iranian lawmaker and chairman of the Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said on Saturday that intelligence and security officials detected and defused miniature explosives inside devices consigned for Iran’s nuclear program. The explosives were intended to detonate after being put to use and sabotage its nuclear program, “but the wisdom of our experts thwarted the enemy conspiracy,” Boroujerdi said. Iran has demanded Siemens be held accountable for its actions, but the German giant has flatly denied having “any business ties with Iran’s nuclear program” and that it “does not supply any technical equipment for it.”

Siemens is well known as a proxy for German intelligence. It designed and built Iran’s nuclear installation under a deal struck before the 1979 Islamic revolution. After the revolution, Siemens claims to have ceased dealing with Iran in its nuclear program, and a Russian company took over. However, Siemens equipment has been finding its way into Iran’s nuclear facilities nonetheless, some perhaps through second and third parties. Even the Stuxnet computer worm that affected Iran’s nuclear operations in 2010 was designed to infect Siemens’ computer systems, and Iran’s nuclear control systems are Siemens-designed.

In addition to these Siemens accusations, Iran has also made accusations of the iaea being infiltrated by “terrorists and saboteurs,” who share secrets with Iran’s enemies. It has also accused the United States, Israel and Britain of assassinating its nuclear scientists and researchers, all in an effort to stall Iran’s nuclear program. If Iran’s accusations are true, then these attacks are not stopping Iran. If false, then Iran could be “searching for a pretext in order to avoid control inspections by the iaea and to quickly build an atomic bomb,” as a German-Iranian expert told the Jerusalem Post.

To understand how Iran’s nuclear crisis will be solved, read “The Ostrich, the Warriors and the Whirlwind.”