Iranian Nuclear Chief Salehi: The West Seeks to Sabotage Our Nuclear Industry

On August 25, 2014, Ali-Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Nuclear Energy Organization, inaugurated an exhibition in Tehran countering the sabotage of industrial equipment. "Western European countries... cooperated with America and the Zionist regime in the sabotaging of equipment," he said. His speech aired on the Iranian news channel IRINN.

Following are excerpts:

Ali-Akbar Salehi: The [nuclear] equipment was produced in Europe, and from there it was sent to the Sandia Labs in New Mexico, America. There they would sabotage the equipment according to their needs, and introduce this defective equipment into the market so that it would reach us. This created a great scientific challenge for a vis-à-vis the West.

Reporter: In order to demonstrate this kind of activity, the first professional exhibition to counter the sabotage of industrial equipment, focusing on the nuclear industry of Iran, was inaugurated by Ali-Akbar Salehi.

Ali-Akbar Salehi: Unfortunately, the Western European countries and their well-known industries, which have a special status in [nuclear] industry, cooperated with America and the Zionist regime in the sabotaging of equipment.

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I really think that we should be grateful to the West, because if it wasn't for their acts of sabotage, we may not have been so aware of the industrial issues, and we would have gone about our business as usual. But today, due to their acts [of sabotage], the level of awareness, experience, and understand of our engineers, when it comes to mechanics, electricity, and various processes, has greatly increased. This is because we are suspicious of everything we purchase. We need to check at least once everything that pertains to certain processes, electronics, and mechanics. This is the reason that our engineers are today at a completely different level.

Reporter: Here you see examples of the defective equipment. Some of the parts are marked "defective," while others are marked "functional." This is the work of our nuclear scientists, who managed to uncover and neutralize these acts of industrial sabotage.

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