Iran shuts nuclear plants in fear of Israeli attack

Iran closed down its nuclear facilities amid fears of an Israeli attack, the United Nations has revealed.

Inspectors were blocked from the sites on Tuesday, Rafael Grossi, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency chief, said.

The shutdown came as Israel’s war cabinet was locked in talks over how to respond to Iran’s first direct attack on its territory.

Experts have warned Iran is on the “threshold” of becoming a nuclear power and could build a bomb in six months to a year.

There is limited evidence the Islamic Republic wants to create a nuclear bomb, and Israel is not understood to be preparing an imminent attack on nuclear facilities.

But Grossi said UN inspectors in Iran “were informed by the Iranian Government that… all the nuclear facilities we are inspecting every day would remain closed on security considerations” following the Iranian strikes.

He added that the facilities reopened on Tuesday and inspectors were due back yesterday.

The UN inspections are a legacy of the now-defunct Iran nuclear deal, which exchanged sanctions relief for curbs and monitoring of the nuclear programme to prevent Tehran getting the bomb.

Inspectors this year found Iran was scaling up production of nuclear fuel approaching weapons grade uranium.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call that launching a retaliation attack on Iran would leave Israel less secure.

Sunak told the Israeli Prime Minister that a “significant escalation was in no one’s interest”, according to a Downing Street readout of the 30-minute call

The conversation makes the Prime Minister the second world leader to talk to Netanyahu since Iran’s missile and drone attack.

US President Joe Biden told Israel to call off immediate revenge in a call during the Iranian attack.

The UK joined the US and France in helping Israel shoot down some of the 350 drones, missiles and rockets fired by Iran at the weekend.

During the call Netanyahu thanked Sunak for the UK’s “rapid and robust support” for Israel in the attack.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister said Iran had badly miscalculated and was increasingly isolated on the global stage, with the G7 coordinating a diplomatic response. He stressed that significant escalation was in no one’s interest.”