DUBAI\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A drone strike sparked a fire on the edge of the United Arab Emirates\u2019 sole nuclear power plant Sunday in what authorities called an \u201cunprovoked terrorist attack.\u201d <\/p>\n
No one was blamed, but it highlighted the risk of renewed war as the United States and Iran signaled they were ready to fight again.<\/p>\n
There were no reported injuries or radiological release. The UAE, which has hosted air defenses and personnel from Israel, recently accused Iran of launching drone and missile attacks. Tensions have risen over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway tightly controlled by Iran, which is under a U.S. naval blockade.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won\u2019t be anything left of them,\u201d President Trump posted on social media shortly after a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran sparked the war on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly set deadlines for Tehran and then backed off.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur armed forces\u2019 fingers are on the trigger, while diplomacy is also continuing,\u201d Mohsen Rezaei, a military advisor to Iran\u2019s supreme leader, said on state television.<\/p>\n
The ceasefire remains tenuous, with diplomatic efforts for a more durable peace having faltered. And fighting has heated up between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon despite a nominal ceasefire there.<\/p>\n
A crucial energy source<\/p>\n
The UAE Defense Ministry said three drones had come over its western border with Saudi Arabia, with the other two intercepted. It was investigating who launched them. Iran and Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq have launched repeated drone attacks targeting gulf Arab states in the war.<\/p>\n
The attack, \u201cwhether carried out by the principal actor or through one of its proxies, represents a dangerous escalation,\u201d Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic advisor to the UAE president, said on social media.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia condemned the attack, and later said it had intercepted three drones that entered from Iraqi airspace.<\/p>\n
The $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 only nuclear power plant in the Arab world and can provide a quarter of the energy needs in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms that is home to Dubai.<\/p>\n
The UAE\u2019s nuclear regulator said on X the fire didn\u2019t affect plant safety and \u201call units are operating as normal.\u201d The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations\u2019 nuclear watchdog, said the strike caused a fire in an electrical generator and one reactor was being powered by emergency diesel generators.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first time the four-reactor Barakah plant has been targeted in the war. It is near the border with Saudi Arabia, some 140 miles west of the UAE\u2019s capital city, Abu Dhabi. Yemen\u2019s Irani-backed Houthi rebels, whom the UAE has battled as part of a Saudi-led coalition, claimed to have targeted the plant while it was under construction in 2017, which Abu Dhabi denied.<\/p>\n
No domestic enrichment<\/p>\n
The UAE signed a strict deal with the U.S. over the nuclear power plant, known as a \u201c123 agreement,\u201d in which it agreed to forgo domestic uranium enrichment and reprocessing of spent fuel to ease any proliferation concerns. Its uranium comes from abroad.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s very different from the nuclear program in Iran, which is at the heart of long-running tensions with the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n
Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, but it has enriched its uranium close to weapons-grade levels and is widely suspected of having had a military component to its program until at least 2003. It has often restricted the work of U.N. inspectors, including since the 12-day war with Israel last year.<\/p>\n
Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed country in the region, but has neither confirmed nor denied having atomic weapons. Iran struck near Israel\u2019s Dimona nuclear facility during the war.<\/p>\n
Nuclear plants have increasingly been targeted in wars in recent years, including during Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022. During the Iran war, Tehran has repeatedly claimed its Bushehr nuclear power plant came under attack, though there was no direct damage to its Russian-run reactor or any radiological release.<\/p>\n
Ceasefire appears increasingly shaky<\/p>\n
Israel is coordinating with the U.S. about a possible resumption of attacks, said two people familiar with the situation, including an Israeli military officer. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing confidential military preparations.<\/p>\n
Speaking to his Cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu said that \u201cour eyes are also open\u201d when it comes to Iran, and \u201cwe are prepared for any scenario.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Iranian state TV, presenters on at least two channels appeared armed during live programs.<\/p>\n
One of them, Hossein Hosseini, received basic firearms training from a masked member of the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Hosseini mimed firing a shot at the flag of the UAE.<\/p>\n
On another channel, Mobina Nasiri said a weapon had been sent to her from a gathering in Tehran\u2019s Vanak Square. \u201cFrom this platform, I declare that I am ready to sacrifice my life for this country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Gambrell and Magdy write for the Associated Press and reported from Dubai and Cairo, respectively. AP writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A drone strike sparked a fire on the edge of the United Arab Emirates\u2019 sole nuclear power plant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[133882,1794,93599,29179,3802,19378,133880,133881,340,48,52,51,47,50,49,92288,34127,133879,127686,133878,2664],"class_list":["post-320993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-attack","tag-drone-strike","tag-dubai","tag-fire","tag-iran","tag-iran-war-ceasefire","tag-iranian-state-television","tag-israel","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-nuclear-program","tag-tehran","tag-u-s-naval-blockade","tag-uae","tag-uae-nuclear-power-plant","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}