Russia has reportedly started the evacuation of 198 workers from Iran’s Bushehr atomic plant shortly after a US-Israeli projectile hit near the facility.
This was a third evacuation from the facility in southern Iran on the Gulf coast, which was built with Moscow’s help, with about 100 Russian staff remaining there by now.
The area around Bushehr has been struck four times during this war. The latest attack on Saturday saw one person — a guard at the facility — killed, but did not damage the plant itself, according to Iranian state media.
“As planned, we began the main phase of the evacuation today,” Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom head Alexey Likhachev was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency.
“About 20 minutes after that ill-fated strike, buses set off from Bushehr station towards the Iranian-Armenian border (with) 198 people, to be precise — this is the largest evacuation,” he added.
Likhachev also said that Russia informed the US and Israel about the evacuation.
“The likelihood of a risk of damage or a potential nuclear incident is, unfortunately, only increasing, as has been confirmed by this morning’s events,” the Rosatom CEO said.
The agency plans to keep only a skeleton staff at Bushehr amid the threat of further strikes. The Russian foreign ministry slammed the “evil” US-Israeli attack and urged a cessation of hostilities on Iranian nuclear facilities immediately.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that continued attacks on the plant on the southern coast could eventually lead to radioactive fallout that would “end life in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) capitals, not Tehran”.
Bushehr is considerably closer to Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar than it is to the Iranian capital.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, wrote on X that no increase in radiation levels had been reported at the site, but nonetheless voiced “deep concern” at what he said was the fourth such strike in recent weeks.
“NPP (nuclear power plant) sites or nearby areas must never be attacked,” he said.
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The local Mehr news agency on Saturday quoted the deputy governor of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, Fattah Mohammadi, as saying the search for the missing pilot involved “presence of popular forces and tribesmen alongside military forces and is still ongoing”.
He added that “last night, people fired at enemy helicopters with rifles and did not allow them to land”.
Images posted on social media showed Iranian police firing at a US helicopter in southwestern Iran as US forces searched for the airman.
Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, mocked the Trump administration, saying the “war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots?”
“What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”
By AFP
