Saudi Arabia says it downed 3 drones that crossed from Iraq

Drone strike hits Abu Dhabi nuclear plant; UAE, Saudi Arabia and UN watchdog condemn

No injuries or radiological release reported as attack sets generator on fire; UAE, hit hard by Iran, appears to blame strike on Tehran or its proxies; no one claims responsibility

The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the United Nations’ nuclear agency joined in condemnation after a drone strike targeted the UAE’s sole nuclear power plant on Sunday, sparking a fire on its perimeter.

The UAE decried the incident as an “unprovoked terrorist attack,” and the International Atomic Energy Agency expressed “grave concern.” Riyadh called the strike a threat to regional stability.

There were no reports of injuries or radiological release in the strike on the Barakah nuclear power plant in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The UAE Defense Ministry said three drones came over its western border with Saudi Arabia, with the other two intercepted.

An official from the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), which operates the Barakah plant, said there were no casualties and the plant had not been damaged.

“It does not appear that there was a direct attack on the nuclear plant we manage and operate. It seems a fire broke out at other power facilities on the outskirts,” the official said, according to the Yonhap news agency.

No one claimed responsibility, and the UAE said it was investigating who launched the drones.

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash appeared to blame the attack on Iran or its regional proxy groups.

“The terrorist targeting of the Barakah clean nuclear power plant, whether carried out by the principal perpetrator or through one of its agents, represents a dangerous escalation,” he wrote on X.

Iran has repeatedly targeted the UAE and other Gulf states with drones and missiles throughout the war, and continued such attacks on the Emirates earlier this month, despite a ceasefire being in effect between Tehran and Washington.

Iranian-backed Iraqi militias are also equipped with drones, as are Tehran’s allies in Yemen, the Houthi rebels, who have targeted the UAE in the past.

The UAE “condemned in the strongest terms the unprovoked terrorist attack” and “will not tolerate any threat to its security and sovereignty under any circumstances,” a foreign ministry statement said.

“These attacks constitute a dangerous escalation, an unacceptable act of aggression and a direct threat to the country’s security,” it added.

The IAEA, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, said the strike caused a fire in an electrical generator, and that one reactor was being powered by emergency diesel generators.

IAEA director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi expressed “grave concern,” the agency said in a statement, adding that he later spoke with the UAE’s foreign minister.

The UAE’s nuclear regulator said on X that the fire didn’t affect plant safety and “all units are operating as normal.”

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the strike as “a threat to the security and stability of the region” and expressed its solidarity with the UAE, saying it would “support all measures taken to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity” of the country.

Saudi Arabia also said it intercepted three drones that entered from Iraqi airspace and warned that it would take the necessary operational measures to respond to any attempt to violate its sovereignty and security.

While hostilities during the Iran conflict have largely been scaled down since a ceasefire came into effect in April, drones have been launched from Iraq towards Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

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 of the UAE.

It was the first time the four-reactor Barakah plant had been targeted in the war. Yemen’s 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.

Nuclear plants have increasingly been targeted in wars in recent years, including during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022. During the Iran war, Tehran 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.