Iran Alleges Natanz Nuclear Site Targeted as Israel Strikes Beirut and Gulf Energy Assets Face Drone Attacks

Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday that U.S.-Israeli airstrikes hit Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment complex, as the widening U.S.–Israel–Iran war pushed deeper into Lebanon, disrupted energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and jolted global markets. 

File Photo: Vanhoa222

Reza Najafi, Tehran’s envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, alleged the Natanz facility was targeted as he addressed the agency in Vienna, while Israel and the United States have not publicly acknowledged strikes there. 

Soon after, IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi told a special session of the agency’s Board of Governors that the watchdog had “no indication” so far that Iran’s nuclear installations — including the Bushehr nuclear power plant and the Tehran Research Reactor — have been damaged, and said there was no sign of radiation levels rising above normal background levels in countries bordering Iran. 

Grossi also warned that the region’s operational nuclear plants, research reactors and fuel-storage sites raise the stakes for safety as strikes and interceptions continue, while communications with Iranian nuclear regulatory authorities have been constrained during the conflict. 

The war’s spillover continued to widen across the region: Israel carried out new strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs after Hezbollah fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel, and Lebanese authorities reported significant casualties from Israel’s response. 

In the Gulf, Saudi state television said Aramco temporarily shut the Ras Tanura refinery near Dammam after Iranian drones targeted the facility, a precautionary step at a site that processes more than half a million barrels a day.

Beyond the battlefield, governments began moving to protect citizens and markets. China said at least one Chinese national was killed in Tehran and that more than 3,000 Chinese citizens have been evacuated from Iran, even as Beijing criticized the killing of Iran’s supreme leader and warned against forced regime change.

Meanwhile, investors reacted to the prospect of disrupted oil flows and prolonged instability: oil rose sharply and major stock markets opened lower, reflecting fears that attacks on energy assets and regional transport corridors could keep pressure on prices and growth expectations.

Taken together, the Natanz allegation and the IAEA’s safety update underscore the conflict’s most dangerous trajectory: a campaign that is simultaneously expanding geographically (Lebanon, Gulf energy sites) and edging closer to the nuclear file in public messaging, even as independent monitors say they have not verified damage to safeguarded nuclear installations. 

With both sides signaling endurance — Iran rejecting talks on one hand while the U.S.-Israel operation continues on the other — the near-term direction points to a longer, more region-wide confrontation, where civilian risk rises not only from direct strikes but also from cascading effects: evacuations, market shocks, disrupted aviation routes and increasing pressure on Gulf infrastructure that underpins global energy and trade.