One person was killed in an '
industrial accident
' southeast of Tehran, near a military compound that has in the past been monitored by the UN's nuclear watchdog, state media reported Thursday.
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"
An industrial accident took place yesterday (Wednesday) evening in one of the factories in the Parchin region, resulting in the death of one person and the injury of another
," the official Irna news agency reported.
On the same day, the Iranian Ministry of Defense declared that
the "accident
" occurred in one of the ministry's "
research units
", specifying in turn that it caused the death of a "
engineer
" and injured another: "
On Wednesday evening, during an accident which occurred in one of the research units of the Ministry of Defense in the Parchin area, engineer Ehsan Ghad Beigi became a martyr and one of his colleagues was injured
,” he said.
A complex under surveillance
The military complex in the Parchin sector was suspected of having hosted conventional explosion tests applicable to nuclear energy, which the Islamic Republic has repeatedly denied.
It thus came under intense scrutiny from the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2015, when Tehran and the major powers reached a historic agreement in Vienna to limit the nuclear program. Iranian in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against Iran.
After refusing the IAEA access to the complex, stressing that it was a military site with no connection to nuclear activities, Tehran finally authorized IAEA inspectors to visit it.
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In June 2020, the explosion of a gas tank in a "
public area
" near the military complex was felt as far as the capital, located about thirty kilometers away, without causing any casualties, according to the Iranian ministry of security. Defense.
According to Tehran, Iran's nuclear program has been the target of several campaigns of cyberattacks, sabotage and targeted assassinations of scientists, which Iran has blamed on Israel, a sworn enemy of the Islamic Republic.
The Israeli authorities have repeatedly declared that they do not rule out the possibility of military action to prevent Tehran from developing the atomic bomb.
Iran has always denied seeking to acquire such a weapon.