The UAE stated that a drone struck the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the Al Dhafra region.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) stated on May 17 that a drone struck a generator at its nuclear power plant and caused a fire amid a continuing ceasefire between Iran and the United States. No country has taken responsibility.
The Gulf Arab country’s ministry of defense reported that three drones on May 17 entered the country from its western border area. Two of the drones were successfully intercepted by its defense systems, while the third drone hit an electrical generator outside the inner perimeter of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the UAE’s Al Dhafra region.
The UAE Ministry of Defense did not assign blame for the drones and stated that an investigation is underway. More details will be announced after the probe is completed, it stated.
“[The UAE] remains fully prepared and ready to address any threats and will firmly confront any attempts to undermine the country’s security, in a manner that safeguards its sovereignty, security and stability, and protects its national interests and gains,” the ministry said in a statement.
The $20 billion Barakah nuclear power plant, built by the UAE with the help of South Korea, 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 wealthy oil-rich nation that is home to major trade, tourism, and finance hub Dubai.
The UAE’s nuclear regulator said in a statement that the fire didn’t affect plant safety and that “all units are operating as normal.” Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, later said he spoke by phone with his South Korean counterpart.
The head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, held a meeting with the deputy prime minister of the UAE, Abdullah bin Zayed, the UAE Foreign Ministry stated in a post on X.
The attack on the power plant sparked a fire, but no casualties were reported, and there was no impact on radiation levels, the foreign ministry stated. It noted that Zayed told the U.N. watchdog’s head, Rafael Grossi, that he “strongly condemned the treacherous terrorist attack that resulted in a fire in an electrical generator.”
