Iran has warned there is a nuclear safety risk after the United States struck a nuclear power plant that is under construction in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.
U.S. forces fired multiple missiles at the facility, Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told the Security Council in a letter cited by Iran’s Mehr news agency. The facility, Iravani added, is covered by safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency and all activities there are “exclusively peaceful, fully transparent and in complete conformity” with the nuclear deal that Iran agreed with Western powers.
The attacks on the Karun power plant, also called Darkhovin after the nearest city, were part of the 18th wave of missile strikes the United States carried out against Iranian targets and came despite the IAEA safeguards. These strikes, Iravani said, were made possible “due to the inaction and double standards of the Security Council.”
The Iranian ambassador at the UN urged the body to condemn the strikes as a violation of international law, which prohibits attacks on civil nuclear facilities.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the attack on the Karun power plant did not risk a nuclear fuel release because the facility was in the early stages of construction and contained no fuel—at least the time of the IAEA’s last inspection.
Construction work on the Darkhovin power plant began in December 2022. The facility will have a nameplate capacity of 300 MW when completed.
The nuclear power site attack is likely to complicate fresh efforts to negotiate a peace between Washington and Tehran amid the latest escalation between the two, which has seen Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz again and the U.S. reinstate its naval blockade on Iranian ports. This has significantly reduced chances of a peace but oil traders appear to be optimistic again, betting this unlikely outcome.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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