US-Israeli Airstrike on Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant Sparks International Condemnation

A US-Israeli airstrike targeted the area near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday, the second such attack on the vicinity of the facility within days. The repeated strikes on the region have triggered sharp international condemnation and warnings of a potential nuclear disaster. The first strike on the Bushehr area occurred on March 17 and caused no damage or casualties. The March 24 (Tuesday) attack again resulted in no immediate damage to the plant but the pattern of targeting Iran’s sole operational nuclear facility has alarmed world powers, nuclear safety bodies and Russia, which built and still staffs the plant. Moscow issued its strongest condemnation yet on Wednesday (March 25). Russia’s Foreign Ministry called Tuesday’s strike a “new and extremely dangerous” attack carried out “in the immediate vicinity of the operating power unit No. 1” at Bushehr. “We are extremely outraged by this reckless, irresponsible manifestation of a destructive course,” the ministry said. “One gets the impression that the aggressors are deliberately seeking to cause a large-scale nuclear catastrophe in the region,” it added. Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom, which constructed the plant and continues to operate it, has already evacuated 150 of its personnel since the US-Israeli war on Iran began. Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev confirmed on Wednesday that the withdrawal of Russian citizens from the site is ongoing. “Right now, about 300 remain,” he said, adding that only a few dozen would stay to oversee critical equipment. “You can’t just drop everything and walk away. Certain processes must be completed,” he said. Likhachev warned that the strikes signal a dangerous shift. “This is a signal that the red lines are shifting, that real risks are already emerging specifically in terms of safety,” he said. Following the strikes, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog called for “maximum restraint to avoid nuclear safety risks”. The Bushehr plant, located in southwestern Iran, was connected to the national grid in 2011. Rosatom was in the process of constructing two new reactors at the site when the conflict erupted. Russia had previously warned that any strike on a nuclear facility could have “irreversible consequences” for the entire region.