'US, allies sabotaging Iran's nuclear programme'

Washington, May 24: US and allied intelligence services are attempting to thwart Iran's nuclear programme using industrial sabotage, CBS News said.

CBS said the methods included modifying components and making changes to technical documents that make them useless.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to comment on the report, saying that any question about an ''alleged'' intelligence operation would have to be referred to the intelligence community.

A US intelligence official declined to comment on any allegations of covert operations in Iran.

The United States says Iran should not be allowed to develop an atom bomb and is leading a diplomatic effort to curb Iran's nuclear programme, which Tehran says is for generating electricity.

But US President George W Bush says all options are open in dealing with Iran and some U.S. and Israeli politicians have called for bombing its nuclear facilities.

CBS did not identify the other intelligence services involved, nor name its sources for the report.

''Sources in several countries involved told CBS News that the intelligence operatives involved include former Russian nuclear scientists and Iranians living abroad,'' the network said.

''Operatives have sold Iran components with flaws that are difficult to detect, making them unstable or unusable.'' It said industrial sabotage caused some technical difficulties Iran faced in constantly running its centrifuges -- devices that enrich uranium to make it suitable for use as fuel in a nuclear power plant, or to make a bomb.

Government representatives, CBS said, pointed to a case of ''exploding power supplies'' -- when equipment regulating voltage in centrifuges at the pilot enrichment facility at the city of Natanz blew up, destroying 50 centrifuges.

''US intelligence agencies have run several programmes in recent years, employing different techniques, including modifying components in hard-to-detect ways and making subtle changes to technical documents and drawings, rendering them useless,'' it said.

The UN nuclear watchdog said yesterday Iran was making substantial advances in uranium enrichment, defying two UN Security Council resolutions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had installed 1,640 centrifuges and was injecting uranium ''UF6'' gas into some 1,300 of them running simultaneously.

Reuters

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