Iran rejects Daily Telegraph’s claim

The spokesman of Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) has roundly dismissed rumors about negative impacts of Stuxnet worm on Iran nuclear facilities.

Hamid Khadem Qaemi, spokesman and managing director of the public relations of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization categorically rejected rumors published in the British paper, The Daily Telegraph, alleging that Stuxnet computer virus has had a negative impact on the country’s nuclear facilities.

Khadem Qaemi said the Stuxnet worm has failed to negatively influence the progressing activities of Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran.

“As the head of the Atomic Energy Organization has reiterated, the organization’s security experts had vigilantly identified the virus about one and a half year ago and required precautions were rendered at the time to block the virus”, said the spokesman.

Earlier this week, the New York Times unveiled in a report that the US and Israel, in a joint scheme, had planned to undermine Iran’s nuclear program by creating the Stuxnet worm. The report said the effectiveness of the virus had been tested in Israel’s Dimona nuclear weapons site.

“To check out the worm, you have to know the machines (the centrifuges at Iran nuclear facilities),” the Times quoted an American expert on nuclear intelligence. “The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out.”

After the revelations, the London-based paper, The Daily Telegraph, published a report claiming, “Russian scientists who work at Bushehr plant warned the Kremlin that the plant’s launch should be postponed again as the Stuxnet virus had damaged some of the nuclear installations”.

“The scientists have raised serious concerns about the extensive damage caused to the plant’s computer systems by the mysterious Stuxnet computer virus, which was discovered last year and is widely believed to have been a sophisticated joint U.S.-Israeli cyberattack”, claimed the Daily Telegraph.

However, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, rejected suggestions earlier this month that the Bushehr schedule should be postponed.

“All the rumours related to the westerners’ claims that Stuxnet had caused damage to the nuclear plants are rejected,” he said.

The IAEO spokesman also said that these rumors are being propagated as part of the psychological warfare against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program in run-up to upcoming talks with G5+1 scheduled for January 21-22 in Istanbul, Turkey.

“With God’s help, the Bushehr nuclear power plant will soon come on stream as the first nuclear plant in the Middle East region”, the spokesman added.