Iran has accused Israel of trying to sabotage its ballistic missile program by delivering faulty foreign components that might explode and endanger the effectiveness of these weapons.
Although the Israeli Prime Minister's office has been mum on these charges, they have come to light amid escalating hostilities between the two countries and a more extensive international campaign to weaken Iran's military prowess, Fox News reported.
Allegations of Faulty Components in Ballistic Missile Program
According to a report on Iranian state television, this alleged Israeli operation was "one of the biggest attempts at sabotage" it had ever seen. Israeli Mossad agents were directly blamed for obtaining and disseminating these problematic parts, called inexpensive "connectors."
The damaged components were seen in the film shown on Iranian state television, with some of them blasting into the air as if hit by bombs. The suspect parts were military-style, high-density circular electrical connections frequently used to connect electronic systems in drones or missiles to transport data and electricity.
These connectors are essential for connecting the computer network of drones and ballistic missiles built in Iran, according to Younes Shadloo, Iran's official television military correspondent. Shadloo claims that the purposefully sabotaged components were outfitted with modified explosive kits that were timed to go off.
The report should have comprehensively justified Iran's desire to import these connections. According to several Iranian sources promoting comparable connectors, the best on the market were those built in Russia. Notably, due to its role in the crisis in Ukraine, Russia has been subject to international sanctions, which may impact the supply of electronics required for missile systems.
It's important to note that experts who have examined these weapons claim that Iranian-made drones, which have earned popularity for their use by Russia in the ongoing Ukraine crisis, also use circular connectors. The damaged parts' discovery date was not disclosed in the Iranian official TV broadcast nor confirmed whether they had been used in any ballistic missiles before their discovery.
Recent events, though, have prompted questions about the security of Iran's military and missile development sites. An engineer lost his life, and other people were hurt in a severe explosion at the Parchin military base in May 2022, located east of Tehran.
The United States has long accused Tehran of using these endeavors to advance its ballistic missile program, and this episode, along with earlier setbacks in Iran's space program, has garnered their ire. This disclosure also follows accusations from 2019 that the US had stepped up a clandestine sabotage effort to thwart Iran's missile and rocket program when Donald Trump was still president.
The CIA, however, chose not to respond to Iran's most recent allegations of sabotage. The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a powerful organization that reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is in charge of Iran's ballistic missile arsenal, as per Defense News.
Expert Validates Iran's Claims of Sabotage as Israeli Actions Continue to Fuel Tensions
The state TV film was examined by Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, who confirmed that circular connectors are a standard part of practically all types of ballistic missiles.
As Hinz remarked, this is not Iran's first claim that components were tampered with to obstruct its missile program. "It's quite likely Iran purchases these connectors from abroad," he added. Israeli sabotage strikes have harmed Iranian nuclear facilities in the past, and Israel has previously been suspected of planning a slew of targeted killings of Iranian atomic scientists.
The most notorious of these assaults occurred in the late 2000s when the uranium centrifuge control units were attacked by the Stuxnet computer virus, which caused them to malfunction and self-destruct.
Although no official accusation was made, many analysts concur that the Stuxnet attack was the work of the United States and Israel; Iran has also made this assertion.
These sabotage claims threaten to worsen already tense relations between Iran and Israel, raising questions about the stability of the Middle East and the future of international attempts to limit Iran's military capabilities, according to the Independent.
