No leakage of radioactive materials reported in the area in central Iran, Tehran’s atomic energy organisation says.
TEHRAN — The United States and Israel have struck Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, according to its atomic energy organisation.
“Following the criminal attacks by the United States and the usurping Zionist regime against our country, the … Natanz enrichment complex was targeted this morning,” the organisation said in a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency on Saturday.
It added that there was “no leakage of radioactive materials reported” at the Shahid Ahmadi Roshan enrichment facility in Natanz in central Iran, one of the country’s most important uranium enrichment sites, about 220km (135 miles) southeast of Tehran.
No radioactive material was released, Tasnim reported, quoting Iranian officials. There is no danger to the population living near the facility, according to the report.
The Natanz nuclear facility was also targeted by Israel in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Tehran, said the attack on Iran’s nuclear site was “expected”, noting that destroying Iran’s nuclear capability has been one of Trump’s stated goals.
“According to reports, there is no radiation and there are no leaks”, Hashem said.
He added that Tehran currently has around 400kg of highly enriched uranium, which the West believes Iran could potentially use to produce a weapon.
Hashem also warned that the strike could signal the possibility of further attacks.
Call for restraint
In a post on X, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran has informed it about the US-Israeli attack on the Natanz site.
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No increase in off-site radiation levels was reported, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said, adding that it was looking into the report.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi repeated his “call for military restraint to avoid any risk of a nuclear accident” during the war on Iran.
The White House has said a key objective of the war it launched alongside Israel on February 28 is to prevent Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons.
The Natanz site was previously hit in the first week of the 22-day war, and several buildings were damaged, according to satellite images at the time.
The UN nuclear watchdog said on March 3 that the nuclear site suffered “recent damage”, a day after Iran said the underground uranium enrichment plant was attacked.
Russia has condemned the latest attack on the Natanz facility, calling it “a blatant violation of international law,” the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the US and Israel would intensify their strikes on Iran in the week starting Sunday.
“This week, the intensity of the strikes to be carried out by the IDF [Israeli army] and the US military against the Iranian terror regime and the infrastructure on which it relies will rise significantly,” Katz said in a statement on Saturday.
Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, said the US had so far struck 8,000 millitary targets across Iran.
“My operational assessment continues to be that Iran’s combat capability is on the steady decline, as out offensive strikes ramp up,” Cooper said in a video statement posted on X.
C. Al Jazeera
