German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas speaks during a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, following a meeting in Moscow, Russia, May 10, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Sergei Karpukhin.

The foreign minister of Germany was criticized on Monday after he expressed disapproval of the sabotaging over the weekend of Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, which has been widely attributed to Israel.

The details of the Natanz incident remain unclear, but reports indicate that it involved a systemic power failure caused by a massive cyber-attack, resulting in serious damage to the facility. There were no casualties in the incident.

The Iranian regime blamed Israel for the attack, which it called “nuclear terrorism,” and said it would take revenge.

On Monday, the Associated Press reported that German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the Natanz incident was “not a positive contribution” to the diplomatic process underway in Vienna, where the US and Iran are holding indirect talks on a possible return to the 2015 nuclear deal from which former president Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, criticized Maas and the diplomatic process, telling The Algemeiner, “Foreign Minister Maas is 100% correct. The sabotage won’t help talks whose main agenda is to get rid of tough sanctions on Iran.”

“This is a regime that has violated the nuclear agreement time and time again, threatens genocide against Israel, poses an existential threat to the Gulf States, and blatantly puts in place a spy/terror network across Europe,” he noted of Iran.

“The sabotage at the nuclear facility was only necessary because European powers have blinked every time Tehran advances its nuclear weapons development,” Cooper asserted. “Germany has made it abundantly clear that its deep economic ties with Iran override all other concerns.”

Hillel Neuer, head of the NGO UN Watch, also criticized Maas, saying, “While the foreign minister speaks officially for the German government, I know many German people who do understand the murderous nature of the Iranian regime and think otherwise than Mr. Heiko Maas.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration appeared to back away from the fallout over the Natanz incident.

According to Axios, a senior White House official said, “We have seen reports of an incident at the Natanz enrichment facility in Iran. The United States had no involvement, and we have nothing to add to speculation about the causes.”