Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned of a potential radioactive catastrophe in the West Asia region after the US and Israel attacked Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant for the fourth time.
Taking to X, the Iranian leader also called out “western hypocrisy” and highlighted the outrage over Russia’s attacks near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Track the latest on the US Iran war here
“Israel-U.S. have bombed our Bushehr plant four times now. Radioactive fallout will end life in GCC capitals, not Tehran,” Araghchi wrote.
The foreign minister’s remarks highlight a key geographic reality, which is that Bushehr’s location as a port city makes neighbouring Arab states more vulnerable and exposed to a radioactive incident than Iran’s capital city, Tehran.
Iran’s FM flags ‘radioactive contamination risk’ to UN
In a similar letter to the United Nations, Iran was warned of a “severe radioactive contamination risk” due to the attacks on the power plant.
“The repeated attacks by the aggressors in the vicinity of the active Bushehr nuclear power plant are of great concern. They expose the entire region to a serious risk of radioactive contamination with grave human and environmental consequences,” he wrote in his letter to the UN, which was shared on Telegram.
On Saturday, the US and Israel targeted the Bushehr nuclear plant for the fourth time. As per the International Atomic Energy Agency, the projectile attack from the US-Israel has killed one person in the vicinity.
This strike on Bushehr comes as the US and Israel escalate their targeting of Iranian industrial sites despite the high risk involved in striking nuclear and petrochemical facilities.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi expressed “deep concern about the reported incident and says [nuclear] sites or nearby areas must never be attacked, noting that auxiliary site buildings may contain vital safety equipment”, the statement read following the attack on the Iranian power plant.
