Russia has issued a stark warning that any military strike targeting Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant would unleash catastrophic environmental and humanitarian consequences across the entire Gulf region, urging an immediate halt to such attacks amid escalating U.S.-Iran hostilities.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, delivered the warning in a post on the social media platform X, emphasizing that any attack on a nuclear facility constitutes a “crime and a flagrant violation of international law.” He stressed that the Gulf Arab states would bear the brunt of the fallout from such an operation, calling for an urgent cessation of military action against the site.
Escalation Precedes Russian Warning
The warning comes against the backdrop of a significant military escalation. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) recently conducted strikes on approximately 90 targets inside Iran, claiming the action was a response to attacks on commercial shipping in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
In a swift and decisive counter-response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed retaliatory operations targeting two U.S. military bases in Kuwait and two in Bahrain, heightening the risk of broader regional confrontation.
Bushehr Province Struck, But Plant Spared
Earlier, Alexei Likhachev, Director General of Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, confirmed that Bushehr province had been subjected to an airstrike, though he clarified that the nuclear plant itself was not directly hit.
The Bushehr facility, Iran’s first nuclear power plant, is situated on the Persian Gulf coast and operates in cooperation with Russia under the oversight of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Experts warn that a direct hit on the reactor could trigger a massive radioactive leak, with widespread health and environmental devastation potentially extending to neighboring Gulf states, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Rosatom, which is currently constructing two additional units at the Bushehr site as part of ongoing nuclear cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, withdrew hundreds of its employees from the facility following the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in late February a move that underscores the severe security risks now facing the region’s most sensitive energy infrastructure.
As tensions continue to mount, Ulyanov’s warning serves as a pointed reminder that the consequences of further military escalation would not be confined to Iranian soil, but would ripple across the entire Gulf, with potentially irreversible environmental and humanitarian costs.
Source: Agencies (edited by Al-Manar)