Iran shuts nuclear facilities after Israel attack

TEHERAN, TRT World - Iran temporarily closed its nuclear facilities over “security considerations” in the wake of its massive missile and drone attack on Israel over the weekend, the head of the UN’s atomic watchdog said.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi was asked whether he was concerned about the possibility of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility in retaliation for the attack.

“We are always concerned about this possibility. What I can tell you is that our inspectors in Iran were informed by the Iranian government that yesterday (Sunday), all the nuclear facilities that we are inspecting every day would remain closed on security considerations,” he said.

The facilities were to reopen on Monday, Grossi said, but inspectors would not return until the following day.

“I decided to not let the inspectors return until we see that the situation is completely calm,” he added, while calling for "extreme restraint".

Iran will respond to any action against its interests, President Ebrahim Raisi said, according to the Iranian Student News Agency, a day after Israel warned it will respond to Tehran’s weekend drone and missile attack.

“We categorically declare that the smallest action against Iranian interests will certainly be met with a severe, widespread and painful response against any perpetrator,” Raisi told the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani.

Israel’s military Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, said on Monday that Iran’s attack on Israel - which was a retaliation after the April 1 bombing of the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus - warranted a response.

Israel’s foreign minister said he was urging countries to place sanctions on Iran’s missile programme and proscribe its Revolutionary Guard Corps as a “terrorist organisation” after Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel.

“Alongside the military response to the firing of missiles and drones, I am leading a diplomatic attack against Iran,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a social media post.

Katz said he sent letters to 32 countries and spoke with numerous counterparts, calling on them to “place sanctions on Iran’s missile project and declare the Revolutionary Guard a terror organisation, as a way to stop and weaken Iran”.

“We must stop Iran now, before it will be too late.”