Iran accused Israel of attacking a uranium enrichment plant: "The Zionist regime tried to take revenge..."

Iran today accused Israel of being behind the attack on its Nantanz uranium enrichment plant, which it said damaged centrifuges, and announced "timely revenge".

"With this action, the "Zionist" regime tried to take revenge on the Iranian people for their patience and wisdom while waiting for the lifting of (US) sanctions," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Hatibazdeh at a press conference in Tehran.

The Iranian authorities announced yesterday that the power went out at the Nantanz nuclear complex, and called it an act of "nuclear terrorism".

In a statement about the incident, the director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, did not directly blame anyone.

This is the first time that Iran has officially accused Israel of the attack.

Israel did not directly claim responsibility for it, however, it was immediately suspected to be behind it as almost all media outlets in that country reported that a major cyber attack had caused the blackout.

If Israel is responsible, it will further increase the already heightened tensions between the two Middle Eastern countries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin yesterday, said he will do everything in his power to stop the Iran nuclear deal, to which the US plans to return.

There are still few details about what happened yesterday morning at Iran's nuclear complex.

First, the incident was described as a power outage caused by the power grid that supplies his above-ground workshops and underground uranium enrichment facilities.

"The answer to Nantanz is revenge against Israel. Israel will get its answer through him," said the spokesman of the Iranian ministry without providing further details, reports the AP agency.

He confirmed that IR-1 centrifuges, the first generation of centrifuges for uranium enrichment in Iran, were damaged in the attack.

He did not say how much they were damaged.

State television has not yet shown footage from that nuclear complex.