Iran accuses Israel of a history of ‘false flag’ operations

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson accused Israel of drawing on a history of covert “false flag” operations to shape international narratives, implicitly suggesting that a recent attack in Sydney may have been linked to Israeli actions without making the allegation explicit.

Baghaei cited the Lavon Affair, which took place in Egypt in 1954, as an example. “The Zionist regime, exploiting Egyptian Jews, carried out a series of bombings and sabotage operations against non-civilian targets linked to the United States and Britain in Alexandria and Cairo, including libraries and post offices. This is a very clear case of a false-flag operation,” he said.

Without directly mentioning last week’s shooting in Australia, he added that “these actions are entirely precedented. The most effective way to counter such behavior is to expose it and inform public opinion about the conduct and crimes of the Zionist regime, which spares no inhumane means to advance its objectives.”

Earlier this month, a mass shooting at a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach in Sydney killed 15 people, including a child. Australian police and intelligence agencies said the attack was linked to Islamic State, and authorities and world leaders said it was motivated by antisemitism.

Following the attack, some Israeli officials and media outlets raised the possibility of Iran’s involvement in the attack, saying the matter was under review. Israel Hayom reported, citing an Israeli official, that in recent months Iran’s activities to target Israeli and Jewish interests worldwide had increased.

Iranian officials and state-linked media, meanwhile, rejected accusations of structural antisemitism or plots to attack Jewish targets, instead seeking to cast Israel as responsible for the Sydney incident.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said last week that what he called Israeli officials’ “hasty” remarks about the attack could point to their own role, while lawmaker Esmail Kowsari said: “Enemies have always tried, by hiring agents, to pin responsibility for their actions on the Islamic Republic and the IRGC.”

Iran boasts of nuclear advances, calls building an atomic bomb a simple task

Dec 20, 2025, 09:19 GMT

The spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the country has made significant nuclear advances, and that developing an atomic bomb would be very easy if Tehran chose to pursue it.

“The simplest task is to build a nuclear bomb, because it does not need fuel control and explodes at once,” Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Saturday, calling it much simpler than developing a nuclear power plant.

“Building a nuclear power plant, which needs control of fuel and reaction levels, is difficult and technical.”

Kamalvandi said Iran has reached "the edge of power in the nuclear field, and there is no unknown issue left for us."

Before a 12-day war in June that culminated in US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities and paused any uranium enrichment in Iran, the country was enriching uranium to near weapons-grade purity levels.

While Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, the United States and Western countries want Iran to end uranium enrichment, arguing that enrichment beyond 20% has no civilian purpose.

UN inspections

The UN nuclear watchdog has resumed inspection activities in Iran but remains unable to access several of the country’s most sensitive nuclear sites following June strikes, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said last week.

“We are only allowed to access sites that were not hit,” he said, calling the resumption important but insufficient.

Grossi said Iran cannot unilaterally decide whether inspectors may enter the damaged facilities.

“If they say it is unsafe and inspectors cannot go there, then inspectors must be allowed to confirm that this is indeed the case,” Grossi said in an interview with Russian state media. “That determination has to be made by the agency.”

Kamalvandi, however, says the UN nuclear watchdog's requests are unreasonable.

“The agency’s insistence that access and inspections take place strictly under a safeguards agreement written for non-war conditions is unreasonable,” he said.

Kamalvandi said Iran believes the current safeguards framework cannot be applied in the same way after military attacks.

“This framework was written for ordinary circumstances,” he said. “When nuclear facilities and materials are damaged in a military attack, the conditions are different.”

He said granting access to Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan while security threats persist could endanger Iran, and added that Tehran is considering other ways to account for nuclear material without inspectors entering the sites.

The standoff follows the June war that began with Israeli strikes on June 13 on nuclear facilities, senior military figures and nuclear scientists, followed by the US attacks on June 22.

Grossi said the three sites at Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan bombed by the US are central to uranium processing, conversion and enrichment, but stressed that Iran’s nuclear program extends well beyond them.

“Iran has much more than these three facilities,” he said. “It has a very developed nuclear program, with research activities and many other sites.”

He cited Iran’s operating nuclear power plant at Bushehr and plans for additional reactors, including projects with Russia, adding: “Work continues in all these areas.”

The IAEA has long sought answers from Iran over past nuclear activities and the whereabouts of undeclared nuclear material, issues Grossi has said cannot be resolved without access to relevant sites.