Mystery accident at suspected Iran missile site kills engineer
- Iran’s defence ministry said the incident occurred at a research centre at the Parchin military complex; scene of a giant unexplained blast in summer 2020
- The International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Parchin is where Iran conducts tests of explosive triggers that could be used in nuclear weapons
An unexplained incident struck a major Iranian military and weapons development base east of Tehran, the country’s state television reported on Thursday, killing an engineer and injuring another employee.
Iran’s Defence Ministry said the “accident” occurred on Wednesday afternoon at a research centre at the Parchin military complex. It did not elaborate on the cause of the accident or provide any further details, but said that an investigation was under way. It identified the engineer who died as Ehsun Ghadbeigi.
Parchin is home to a military base where the International Atomic Energy Agency previously said it suspected Iran conducted tests of explosive triggers that could be used in nuclear weapons.
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Iran long has denied seeking nuclear weapons, though the IAEA previously said Iran had carried out work in “support of a possible military dimension to its nuclear programme” that largely halted in late 2003.
Western concerns over the Iranian atomic programme led to sanctions and eventually to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The US under President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord in May 2018, leading to a series of escalating attacks between Iran and the US and Tehran abandoning the deal’s production limits.
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Tehran enriches uranium up to 60 per cent purity – its highest level ever and a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.
In 2015, the IAEA’s then-director-general visited one suspected weapons-programme site at Parchin and inspectors took samples there for analysis.
Iran’s missile and space programmes have suffered a series of mysterious explosions in recent years.
A giant unexplained blast struck in the area of Parchin in the summer of 2020, rattling the capital and sending a massive fireball into the sky near Tehran.
