It added that “a large number” of centrifuges, whose enrichment activity was disrupted by the explosion, had been returned to normal service, the report said.

 

Iran and global powers are meeting in Vienna to try to rescue the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by Washington three years ago.

 

The talks are potentially complicated by Tehran’s decision to ramp up uranium enrichment and what it called Israeli sabotage at the Natanz nuclear site.

 

Meanwhile, a source echoing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s stance reiterated Iran’s demand for the removal of all sanctions imposed under former President Donald Trump.

 

“In Tehran, nothing will be accepted but the removal of all sanctions, including those related to the JCPOA (nuclear accord), re-imposed and relabelled during the Trump era,’’ the unnamed source told Iran’s state-run Press TV.

 

Israeli media outlets have quoted unnamed intelligence sources as saying the country’s Mossad spy service carried out the Natanz sabotage operation.

 

Israel – widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear arsenal – has not formally commented on the incident.