[ti:Iran Blames Israel for Nuclear Plant Outage] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]Iran has accused Israel of carrying out an attack on a nuclear center [00:07.84]that damaged equipment and caused a power outage. [00:13.80]Iranian officials called Sunday's incident [00:18.28]at the Natanz nuclear center an act of "nuclear terrorism." [00:24.76]They said centrifuges were damaged at the plant. [00:30.84]A centrifuge is a device used [00:34.24]to increase the purity of uranium for nuclear purposes. [00:40.88]Media organizations reported the Israeli government was behind the action, [00:47.96]which was described as a cyberattack. [00:52.96]However, Israel did not claim responsibility [00:57.44]for an attack or comment directly on the incident. [01:03.20]Speaking to reporters Monday, [01:05.96]Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [01:10.48]said Israel would continue efforts [01:13.92]aimed at preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon. [01:20.76]He said such a device would give Iran the ability [01:25.68]"to carry out its genocidal goal of eliminating Israel." [01:32.00]He added that Israel "will continue to defend itself [01:37.04]against Iran's aggression and terrorism." [01:42.92]A former chief of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, [01:49.12]General Mohsen Rezaei, said in a message on Twitter [01:54.08]that the attack had started a fire. [01:58.36]Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh [02:03.44]said the country's answer to the action [02:06.84]should be "to take revenge against Israel." [02:12.04]He did not comment further, but added that Israel [02:16.60]"will receive its answer through its own path." [02:21.88]Khatibzadeh confirmed that centrifuges at the plant had been damaged. [02:28.96]The incident took place one day after Iran announced [02:34.68]it had launched new, advanced centrifuge machines at Natanz. [02:41.56]Khatibzadeh said only the older centrifuges were damaged. [02:48.88]Iran's improvements in centrifuge technology [02:53.60]are designed to permit the country to process uranium faster. [03:01.04]Since January, Iran has begun enriching uranium to as high as 20 percent purity, [03:10.36]a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. [03:16.52]The incident came after negotiations began last week in Vienna [03:23.28]aiming to bring the United States back into a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. [03:33.44]The deal -- which the U.S. left in 2018 under President Donald Trump [03:40.12]-- restricts Iran's nuclear program [03:43.80]in exchange for easing U.S. and international sanctions. [03:50.64]The U.S. reestablished economic sanctions [03:54.64]after withdrawing from the agreement. [03:58.84]Iran answered by violating some of the terms of the deal. [04:05.48]In Vienna, officials from the U.S. and Iran were holding indirect talks. [04:13.76]Also taking part were representatives from countries [04:18.00]still in the nuclear deal -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia. [04:27.52]U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived Monday in Israel [04:34.48]for talks with Netanyahu and other officials. [04:40.24]When asked by reporters whether the nuclear discussions [04:45.16]might be affected by the incident at the plant [04:49.24]Lloyd said, "Those efforts will continue." [04:54.72]In a statement, the White House said it knew about the Natanz attack [05:00.96]and that "the U.S. was not involved in any manner." [05:06.16]I'm Bryan Lynn. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM