As Israel and the US bombed Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility on Saturday, experts warned that a more intense strike could cause catastrophic radioactive fallout across the Gulf states.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the airstrike hit near its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a security guard and damaging a support building. The head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said 198 workers had been evacuated. It was the fourth time the facility had been targeted. US-Israeli strikes also hit a petrochemical hub, a cement plant and a trade terminal on the Iran-Iraq border on Saturday, where one person was reportedly killed.
In response to the attack, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said: Do you remember the Western outrage over hostilities near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine?
Israel and the USA have already bombed our factory in Bushehr four times. Radioactive fallout will end life in GCC capitals, not Tehran. Attacks on our petrochemical products also express real targets.
Why would an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities be disastrous for the Gulf states?
Alan Eyre, a Middle East expert and former US negotiator, told Al Jazeera about the strikes: “If there is a nuclear disaster or leak in Bushehr, the Gulf countries on the other side of the Persian Gulf will be the first to suffer both in terms of ambient radiation and water radiation, which will affect their desalination capabilities.”
Eyre pointed out that prevailing winds and tidal currents in the Persian Gulf would likely carry any radioactive material westward, away from Iran. “Studies and academics have shown that the concentration of radioactive material going west may not be enough to endanger life like Chernobyl, but the threat of a radioactive nuclear influx in water is more serious,” he warned.
“Once there’s radioactive nuclear activity in the water, it rules out desalination. And as we know, the Gulf countries rely almost entirely on desalination to get their water.”
In the latest threat after the bombing, President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Tehran had 48 hours to make a deal or face “all hell” as US and Iranian forces scrambled to find the downed US airman.
“Remember when I gave Iran 10 days to DROP THE DEAL or OPEN THE HORMUZ FLOOR,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to the March 26 ultimatum.
“Time is running out – 48 hours before all hell will be (sic) upon them.”
Meanwhile, holding anti-war banners and chanting slogans against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hundreds of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest the war with Iran.
Demonstrators gathered in the central square holding signs reading: “Don’t bomb – speak! End the endless war!” despite restrictions on mass gatherings imposed during the conflict with Iran.
