Ali Akbar Salehi
Ali Akbar SalehiReuters

Ali-Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Nuclear Energy Organization, recently claimed that the West, including “the Zionist regime” sought to sabotage Iran’s nuclear industry.

The comments came in a speech that aired on August 25, on the Iranian news channel IRINN. The speech was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“The [nuclear] equipment was produced in Europe, and from there it was sent to the Sandia Labs in New Mexico, America. There they would sabotage the equipment according to their needs, and introduce this defective equipment into the market so that it would reach us. This created a great scientific challenge for a vis-à-vis the West,” he claimed.

“Unfortunately, the Western European countries and their well-known industries, which have a special status in [nuclear] industry, cooperated with America and the Zionist regime in the sabotaging of equipment,” added Salehi.

“I really think that we should be grateful to the West, because if it wasn't for their acts of sabotage, we may not have been so aware of the industrial issues, and we would have gone about our business as usual. But today, due to their acts [of sabotage], the level of awareness, experience, and understand of our engineers, when it comes to mechanics, electricity, and various processes, has greatly increased. This is because we are suspicious of everything we purchase. We need to check at least once everything that pertains to certain processes, electronics, and mechanics. This is the reason that our engineers are today at a completely different level,” he continued.

Iran has in the past accused Israel, the U.S. and other countries of trying to sabotage its nuclear program.

In 2010, a U.S. cyber-attack, reportedly carried out in collaboration with Israel, hit Iran's nuclear facilities. The Stuxnet virus was tailored specifically to target uranium enrichment facilities.

Several Iranian nuclear engineers have also been killed in what Tehran says were assassinations by foreign intelligence services.