Iran
Iranצילום: ISTOCK

Iran walked back claims Monday that an explosion at a military research center was the result of an accident, and now acknowledges that the incident was the result of sabotage.

Late last month, an explosion was reported at a military research facility in Parchin.

One engineer was killed in the explosion, and a second engineer injured.

At the time, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics as saying that the explosion was “an accident”.

"On Wednesday evening, during an accident that took place in one of the research units of the defense ministry in the Parchin region, Engineer Ehsan Ghad Beigi was martyred and one of his colleagues was injured."

On Monday, however, Iranian media outlets quoted Mohammad Reza Hasani Ahangar, president of Imam Hussein University, as saying that the explosion was the result of “industrial sabotage”.

In June 2020, an explosion occurred at the Parchin military site, but it was not clear what caused the explosion.

Iran has denied that the Parchin site is related to its nuclear program, though it did admit at one point to using Parchin to test exploding bridge wires, used as nuclear detonators.

In 2014, a mysterious explosion occurred at the site. While Iran denied that an explosion had occurred at the site, satellite evidence received later refuted the denial.