Speculation Swirls After Explosion in Iran

Israel said Wednesday that Iran was just six months away from being able to build an atomic bomb, and Iranian state television reported an explosion in the region of the Islamic Republic’s only nuclear power plant.

A senior Iranian military officer said the explosion was part of blasting work involved in building a dam, but the initial report by satellite TV channel Al Alam attributed the blast to a missile. That story jolted financial markets amid worry about a U.S. or Israeli strike to end Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Washington believes that Iran is seeking an atomic bomb. Tehran says the only purpose of its nuclear program is to generate electricity.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, whose country regards Iran as one of its most dangerous enemies, said Tehran was “trying very hard to develop the nuclear bomb.”

“The question is not if the Iranians will have a nuclear bomb in 2009, 10 or 11; the main question is when are they going to have the knowledge to do it,” he said in London. “We believe in six months from today they will ... have that knowledge.”

A 1981 Israeli airstrike on an Iraqi reactor at Osiraq dealt a severe blow to then-President Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program.

Al Alam, which broadcasts in Arabic, reported the powerful explosion near the town of Dailam, about 100 miles from Iran’s only nuclear power plant.

It quoted witnesses as saying the explosion was caused by an aircraft firing a missile near Dailam but also cited a local source saying that a fuel tank may have fallen from an Iranian plane.

The report briefly pressured the U.S. stock market and sent oil prices higher.

But Ali Reza Afshar, an Iranian military official, later blamed blasting work for a dam. Al Alam dropped references to a missile strike from its bulletins.

Tehran on Wednesday accused the United States of using satellites “and other tools” to spy on its nuclear sites and threatened to shoot down any surveillance craft. Iran’s Russian-built, 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor at Bushehr is due to start operating late this year and is expected to reach capacity in 2006.

France, Britain and Germany have been trying to persuade Iran to scrap activities that may be related to weapons in return for economic incentives, but Iran says its suspension of uranium enrichment operations in November is only temporary.