TEHRAN: The UN’s nuclear watchdog called for restraint on Sunday after Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the United States had attacked an under-construction nuclear power plant in the country’s southwest.
The US and Iran have been trading escalating attacks for days, and Washington carried out fresh airstrikes on Sunday to “punish” Iran for the deaths of two US service members in Jordan on Friday — its first reported losses since the return to open hostilities in the Middle East war.
Tehran’s Atomic Energy Organization said US forces “in an aggressive and brutal act contrary to international law, attacked the under-construction Darkhovin nuclear power plant… with a number of projectiles on Sunday”, according to a statement carried by state TV.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said it was looking into the reports, noting the plant “is in the very early stages of construction and contained no nuclear material when last visited by the IAEA”.
While the incident “is not believed to pose any radiological risk”, IAEA director Rafael Grossi reiterated his “call for military restraint in the vicinity of all nuclear-related sites”, the agency said, in a post on X.
Iran’s nuclear programme has long been a major point of contention between it and the West, including in negotiations aimed at ending the current war.
While foreign powers including the US and Israel suspect it of seeking a bomb, Tehran has always maintained its programme is peaceful, though it insists on its right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
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