Iran has warned that any US-Israeli attack on its civilian nuclear facilities could unleash radioactive contamination across the region, urging the United Nations to intervene before it is too late.
In letters addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Security Council members on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said strikes on installations such as the Bushehr nuclear power plant would have grave humanitarian and environmental consequences “that shall not be left unattended.”
Araghchi emphasized that Iran’s nuclear sites are devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes and operate under the IAEA’s comprehensive safeguards regime, making any assault on them unlawful.
The top diplomat expressed dismay that international bodies have remained silent following two separate attacks on Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities within nine months—carried out by the US, an NPT signatory, and Israel, which remains outside the nuclear non-proliferation framework.
“With grave disappointment, the United Nations Security Council, the IAEA Board of Governors and its director general have flatly failed even to condemn the illegal attacks,” Araghchi wrote.
He noted that senior US officials who label international humanitarian law as “stupid” have now openly stated that nuclear facilities are among their targets. The US permanent representative to the UN, he added, has declared that strikes on Bushehr are “not off the table.”
“Such recklessness is the direct consequence of the inaction of the United Nations,” Araghchi said, warning that continued silence has “inflicted an irreparable blow upon the credibility” of the global body, the Security Council, and the IAEA.
The foreign minister said repeated strikes near the active Bushehr plant are “extremely alarming,” with proximity to an active nuclear facility constituting “an intolerable escalation entailing a grave risk of radiological release.”
He cautioned that if the Security Council and IAEA remain indifferent to illegal attacks on Iran’s safeguarded nuclear sites, member states may lose confidence in the UN and the broader non-proliferation regime will be further eroded. “The consequences of such inaction would not be confined to Iran,” he added.
The United States and Israel launched a large-scale military campaign against Iran on February 28, which Tehran says included the assassination of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and several senior commanders. In response, Iran’s armed forces have carried out waves of missile and drone operations against US interests across West Asia and Israeli positions in the occupied territories.
Source: Iranian media (edite dby Al-Manar)