No leakage of radioactive materials reported in the area in central Iran, Tehran’s atomic energy organisation says.
Published On 21 Mar 2026
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.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
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 Mohamed Vall, reporting from Tehran, said the Iranian nuclear organisation’s statement did not say how Saturday’s attack happened and what types of bombs were used in it.
“We know that Natanz is one of the key nuclear sites in Iran, towards the middle of the country, along with the Isfahan nuclear facilities,” he said.
“And we know a major goal of this war by the Americans and Israelis was about the nuclear programme of Iran, how to destroy it and prevent Iran from producing a nuclear bomb.”
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.
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.