DUBAI: The death of an Iranian Defence Ministry engineer in May 2021 was the result of “industrial sabotage” at a military site in Parchin near the capital Tehran, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted on Monday as saying.

In his comments to the semi-official Entekhab news agency, the commander, Hassani Ahangar, did not say who was believed to be behind the sabotage. “The martyr from the Ministry of Defence was himself not the target but was affected by an act of industrial sabotage. We must prevent such threats with artificial intelligence methods,” Ahangar was quoted by the agency as saying.

“Engineer Ehsan Ghadbeigi was martyred and one of his colleagues was injured in an accident that took place in one of the Ministry of Defence’s research units at the Parchin area on May 25 (2021),” Entekhab added.

Parchin is a sensitive military site housing several industrial and research units, where Western security services believe Iran carried out tests related to nuclear bomb detonations more than a decade ago.

Iran denies Western accusations that it is trying to build an atomic bomb and says its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.