DUBAI MAR 21 : Iran’s main nuclear enrichment site at Natanz was struck again in an airstrike on Saturday, state‑linked Mizan news agency reported, as the wider Middle East war drags into its fourth week. The agency said there was no radiation leakage, citing the facility’s robust safeguards, while satellite imagery from earlier strikes already showed multiple buildings damaged at the sprawling complex southeast of Tehran.
Natanz, a key uranium‑enrichment hub, had been previously targeted in the 12‑day US‑Israel military campaign against Iran in June 2025, and now finds itself back in the crosshairs amid the renewed hostilities that began on February 28. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has earlier confirmed “some recent damage” to the entrance structures of Natanz’s underground Fuel Enrichment Plant, while stressing that no radiological consequences were expected.
The fresh blow to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure comes amid sharply mixed signals from Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he was considering “winding down” military operations in the Middle East even as the Pentagon continues reinforcing the region with three more amphibious assault ships and roughly 2,500 additional Marines. That escalation follows an Iranian threat to target global tourist sites and a spike in oil prices that has rattled financial markets.
Trump’s administration has also paused sanctions on Iranian oil already loaded on ships—a move timed to ease soaring fuel costs—as the war continues to choke supplies through the Strait of Hormuz and drive Brent crude to around $106 per barrel, up from about $70 before the conflict. The United States, Israel, and Iran insist the war is far from over, with Israel continuing waves of strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon and in Beirut’s southern districts, while Saudi Arabia says it has downed 20 drones in its oil‑rich eastern region in a single stretch.
More than 1,300 people have been reported killed in Iran, over 1,000 in Lebanon, and scores in Israel, the West Bank, and among U.S. military personnel, underscoring how the expanding campaign has deepened the humanitarian and economic crisis far beyond the region’s borders.
