A drone strike targeted the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah nuclear facility on Sunday, destroying a power generator at its site and again affecting a shaky ceasefire in the Iran war.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which resulted in no radiological release or injuries, authorities in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, said. However, suspicion immediately fell on Iran, which has been increasingly threatening the UAE in recent days as the country hosted the Iron Dome missile defense system by Israeli forces during the war.
The attack occurred while Iran still has a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, an important waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passed before the war, disrupting the world’s energy supply.
At the same time, the United States continues to block Iran’s ports to respond if negotiations to strengthen the ceasefire fail to move forward. US President Donald Trump has suggested hostilities could resume, as firefights between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon have escalated in recent days, threatening a separate ceasefire there.
The nuclear plant provides a fifth of the UAE’s energy
The US$20 billion Barakah nuclear power plant was built by the UAE with the help of South Korea and went online in 2020. It is the first and only nuclear power plant on the Arabian Peninsula and can supply a quarter of all the energy needs of the UAE, a federation of seven states. It is also the first commercial nuclear power plant in the Arab world.
The UAE nuclear regulator said the fire did not affect the safety of the plant. “All units are working as usual,” the organization wrote on social media.
The UAE statement did not blame any side for the attack. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sunday’s strike was the first time the four Barakah nuclear power plants had been targeted in the Iran war. The factory is located in the far western desert of Abu Dhabi, near the border with Saudi Arabia. The United Arab Emirates signed a tough deal with the United States over the power plant, known as the “123 agreement,” in which it agreed to stop domestic uranium enrichment and reprocessing spent fuel to end any proliferation fears. Its uranium comes from abroad.
