A drone strike targeted the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah nuclear power plant on Sunday, setting an electrical generator ablaze on its perimeter and again straining the shaky ceasefire in the Iran war.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which caused no radiological release nor injuries, authorities in the UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi, said. However, suspicion immediately fell on Iran, which has been increasingly threatening the UAE over recent days as the country hosted Israeli Iron Dome missile defences and troops during the war.
The attack comes as Iran still has a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway where a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passed through before the war, disrupting global energy supplies.
Meanwhile, the US continues to block Iranian ports in response as negotiations to solidify the ceasefire have failed to advance. US President Donald Trump has suggested hostilities could resume, as fire exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been rising in recent days, threatening a separate ceasefire there.
Nuclear plant provides a fifth of 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’s the first and only nuclear power plant on the Arabian Peninsula and can provide a quarter of all the energy needs in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms. It’s also the first commercial nuclear power plant in the Arab world.
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The UAE’s nuclear regulator said the fire did not impact the plant’s safety. “All units are operating as normal,” the organisation wrote on social media.
The UAE statement did not blame any party for the attack. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Sunday’s strike marked the first time the four-reactor Barakah plant has been targeted in the Iran war. The plant sits in the far western deserts of Abu Dhabi, near the border with Saudi Arabia. The UAE signed a strict deal with the US over the power plant, known as a “123 agreement,” in which it agreed to give up domestic uranium enrichment and reprocessing of spent fuel to halt any proliferation fears. Its uranium comes from abroad.