Pumps at Iran’s planned Arak reactor, seen by the West as a potential source of plutonium for nuclear bombs, were tampered with in a failed attempt to sabotage the country’s nuclear program, a senior official said on Monday.

Asghar Zarean, deputy chief for nuclear protection and security at the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said the incident was one of several such attacks foiled over the past few months, the official IRNA news agency reported.

He did not name the targets of the other alleged attacks or who might have been behind them, according to IRNA.

Iran has in the past often accused its Western and Israeli foes of seeking to sabotage its nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but the United States and its allies fear may be aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability. It has also accused its enemies of assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists.