Thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium has been damaged or completely destroyed at the Natanz nuclear site, a senior Iranian official stated on Tuesday.

Alireza Zakani, the head of the Iranian parliament’s research center, detailed the damage incurred in the attack in an interview on state TV.

Zakani’s statement seems to confirm remarks by Channel 13 News analyst Alon Ben-David, who said that Iran’s provocative announcement that it will begin increasing uranium enrichment to up to 60% is “not a significant threat.”

Ben-David explained that due to the extensive damage at Natanz, Iran will not be able to reach 60% enrichment there and although it maintains about 1,000 additional centrifuges at its Fordo plant, those centrifuges can only enrich uranium up to 60% in very small quantities.

An increase of up to 60% uranium enrichment is significant since it is a short step away from weapons-grade uranium.

Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall, an expert on strategic issues with a focus on Iran, terrorism and the Middle East, and a senior analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told JNS on Monday that the attack caused years of work to “go down the drain.”

“This isn’t the first time that centrifuges in Natanz have crashed in one way or another,” Segall said. “I’m not sure how many cascades [a group of centrifuges working together to enrich uranium more quickly] were destroyed there, and it is not clear what happened, but when a cascade breaks, this represents years of work that go down the drain.”

Segall also spoke about the political repercussions of the multiple attacks [attributed to Israel] on Iran’s “top-secret” sites, with Iranians mocking the regime on social media for being unable to protect its most critical assets.

“The regime has been exposed,” he said. “As it continues to absorb attacks, there is a growing erosion in its perception by the Iranian people, and certainly, by the Iranian diaspora.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)