DUBAI: Inaction by the UN nuclear watchdog “emboldens aggression” against nuclear facilities such as the Bushehr power plant, Iran’s atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami said on Monday in a letter addressed to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director.
Eslami said Iran’s only functioning nuclear power plant had so far been targeted four times, with the most recent attack in its vicinity on April 4 killing a security staff member and injuring others.
He warned that such attacks could risk the release of radioactive material from an operating reactor and could have “irreparable consequences” for people, the environment and neighboring countries.
He described the attacks as a clear breach of international law, and criticized what he called the agency’s “lack of decisive action,” saying mere expressions of concern were insufficient and would embolden further attacks.
The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog on Monday warned attacks near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant “pose a very real danger to nuclear safety and must stop.”
Strikes near the operating plant “could cause a severe radiological accident with harmful consequences for people and the environment in Iran and beyond,” said Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on X.
He added that one recent strike hit just 75 meters (246 feet) from the plant’s perimeter.
- With Reuters and AFP
