Iran holds ‘counter-sabotage’ drills at enrichment plant

Iran held a series of unscheduled, wide-ranging drills at the Fordo underground uranium enrichment facility on Friday to train its personnel how to react in the event of a military strike, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

The “counter-sabotage” exercises, organized by Iran’s atomic energy agency, aimed to “upgrade the skills, knowledge and preparedness level of its experts and reduce their reaction time against foreign threats,” the report said.

The drills were code-named “Mersad,” and various branches of the facility operations — security, engineering, fire and nuclear safety — were said to take part.

The unplanned drills were deemed by unnamed experts to be “the most crucial and most effective exercises in the history of the country’s civil defense,” the report said.

The drills came as several Hebrew media reports said the nuclear deal shaping up between Iran and the Western powers would leave Tehran with thousands of centrifuges spinning — 6,500, according to Channel 2; over 7,000, according to Channel 10 — and thus capable of breaking out to a nuclear bomb within months. The reports were later disputed by US officials.

Israel’s Channel 10 news said Friday that the deal taking shape between the P5+1 countries and Tehran would allow Iran to continue enriching uranium in “over 7,000″ centrifuges. It quoted unnamed Jerusalem sources saying the terms of the deal would leave Iran “closer than was thought” to nuclear weapons, “mere months from producing enough material for a bomb,” and that the US has agreed to 80% of Iran’s demands.

A similar report on Channel 2 news Friday said the US was ready for Iran to keep enriching uranium in 6,500 of its 9,000 centrifuges. It also said that the US was proposing “a time limit” on the deal — possibly of 10 or 15 years — after which “Iran will be free to continue a nuclear industry.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was said to have indicated to confidants that he feels he has “no choice” but to speak out against the imminent deal, including on March 3 to Congress, Channel 10 said. Netanyahu does not intend to speak against Obama, or to give a partisan address, or to focus overly on sanctions, but rather to talk strongly against the deal, the report said.

On Saturday night, Channel 10 quoted “a very senior American official” saying the information was “nonsense, unfounded, not true.”

This American assertion, however, was immediately rejected by “very senior” sources in the Israeli government, who reiterated that the Obama administration has given in to “80% of Iran’s demands,” including by agreeing to let Iran keep 7,000 of its 9,000 centrifuges operational, and thus leaving Iran “only months from a breakout to enough [enriched] material for a bomb.”

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