Araghchi flags nuclear danger in letter to UN

Iran’s foreign minister has expressed grave concerns about the negative effects of US-Israeli bombings on Iranian civilian nuclear facilities, particularly the Bushehr nuclear power plant, highlighting the possibility of radioactive pollution in the area.

Abbas Araghchi stated that the US-Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities occur despite the fact that these facilities are solely used for peaceful purposes and are operating under the IAEA’s extensive safeguards regime in identical letters sent on Saturday to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council members.

“These unlawful attacks expose the entire region to the risk of radioactive contamination with grave humanitarian and environmental consequences, and as such shall not be left unattended,” the letters stated.

Araghchi noted that in just nine months, the United States, a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and Israel, an outlaw government that does not adhere to the NPT, have inflicted two wars of aggression on Iran.

He pointed out that Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities were bombed and attacked in both cases, and that it is extremely disappointing that the UN Security Council, the IAEA Board of Governors, and its director general have not even attempted to denounce the unlawful attacks, much less take appropriate action within their mandate to stop them from happening again.

“Now the US Senior officials, who label international humanitarian law as ‘stupid,’ have gained the audacity to state that nuclear facilities are among their targets,”the foreign minister of Iran wrote.

Attacks against the Bushehr nuclear power facility are “not off the table,” according to the US permanent representative to the UN.

“Such recklessness is the direct consequence of the inaction of the United Nations and the agency regarding the manifest acts of aggression by the United States and the Israeli regimes, which have only emboldened the aggressors. This course of unlawful attacks inflicted an irreparable blow upon the credibility of the United Nations, the Security Council, the IAEA, and its safeguards system,” Araghchi said.

Since the present conflict began on February 28, assaults on Iranian civilian nuclear facilities have been carried out without any unambiguous criticism from relevant international authorities, according to the senior Iranian diplomat.

“The aggressors’ repeated strikes in the vicinity of the active nuclear power plant in Bushehr is extremely alarming; their proximity to an active nuclear facility constitutes an intolerable escalation entailing a grave risk of radiological release,” Araghchi further added.

The Iranian foreign minister finally highlighted that should the Security Council and the Board of Governors of the IAEA remain indifferent in the face of a manifest illegal attack against Iran’s safeguarded nuclear facilities, the member states may lose confidence in the United Nations, the agency, and the broader non-proliferation regime will be further eroded. “The consequences of such inaction would not be confined to Iran,” the FM continued.

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched a massive, unprovoked military attack against Iran, killing Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, as well as a number of senior military officials and civilians.

Intense attacks on both military and civilian targets across Iran have been part of the aggression, which has resulted in significant casualties and extensive infrastructural damage.

The Iranian Armed Forces have responded by launching waves of large drone and missile attacks against Israeli locations in the occupied territories and US objectives throughout West Asia.