ABNA24 - The US-Israeli focus on the Iranian infrastructure in recent days of their aggression has not only taken human and material toll, but also their crimes are causing environmental concerns and leave a deep wound on the nature whose effects can linger for years. Reacting to the disasters caused to the nature, Iranian officials call on the international community to take resolute stances against the aggressors.
Sheena Ansari, head of Iran’s Department of Environment, has warned the UN Environment Programme’s executive secretary about the environmental consequences of brutal attacks on the country’s peaceful nuclear power plants. In a letter, Ansari urged the UN to clearly and unequivocally condemn the assaults, convene emergency meetings to prevent further environmental damage in the region, and compel the attackers to halt their war crimes against the infrastructures.
Also, Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi sent a letter to UN Secretary‑General António Guterres and members of the Security Council. He outlined Iran’s position on the US and Israeli military strikes on nuclear facilities and related sites, warning of severe humanitarian and environmental repercussions from the illegal attacks in Iran.
Separately, Arman Khorsand, head of the Department of Environment’s Center for International Affairs and Conventions, criticized international organizations for their handling of the environmental fallout from attacks on Iran’s nuclear plants. “Silence from international institutions amounts to complicity,” he said. Khorsand stressed that given the Bushehr nuclear plant’s proximity to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, any release of materials into these waters would heavily affect southern neighboring states, whose water supply relies significantly on desalination plants. “Any nuclear contamination of the water would effectively force mass evacuations,” he added, warning that the ecosystems of both bodies of water would suffer serious harm.
Earlier, some Arab officials in the Persian Gulf had cautioned about the natural and environmental risks posed by US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Despite these warnings, the Washington and Tel Aviv have carried out multiple attacks near the Bushehr Power Plant in recent weeks, intensifying concerns about the future of the region’s environment and the safety of people and wildlife.
Risks of nuclear radiation for the environment
If Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant comes under serious attack, the fallout will not only affect Iran, but it will go beyond to impact the whole region. If my the Persian Gulf water is polluted with nuclear material, the life and water supply for the neighboring country will be extremely difficult.
The risk posed by nuclear radiation to the region is so grave that even the director‑general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued a warning. Rafael Grossi cautioned that continued military activity near the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, an operational facility housing a large amount of nuclear fuel, could trigger a severe radiological incident with harmful consequences for people and the environment in Iran and beyond.
These sustained attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities come despite Article 56 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which provides absolute, reinforced protection for works and installations containing dangerous forces, including nuclear power plants. The article explicitly prohibits any attack that could release such forces and cause heavy civilian casualties. In addition, Article 55 of the same protocol obliges parties engaged in armed conflict to protect the natural environment from widespread, long‑term, and severe damage.
Environmental damages
The detrimental dangers deriving from war are not limited to human and maternal damages and extend to wildlife and thousands-year-old historical sites. Back-to-back explosions caused by aerial bombings cause heavy soil compaction and irreparable erosion of earth and leakage to toxic material from weapons and destruction of the industrial sites pollute the soil with heavy metals and sustainable chemical material that will destroy farming and healthy life for centuries.
Environmental experts suggest that when soil is destroyed by the impact of bombs and missiles, erosion reaches a level where the living organisms within it are effectively wiped out, severing the chain of life. In mountainous regions, this appears as landslides and severe erosion, while in forested areas it shows itself through the complete destruction of trees. This structural degradation of the soil makes its restoration impossible for decades, turning fertile lands into barren deserts for which irreversible erosion is the only accurate description.
In the meantime, the destruction of the environment and the loss of forests will also disrupt the food supply chain, creating long‑term risks for the inhabitants of conflict‑affected regions. Continued environmental destruction will eliminate wildlife habitats and push species toward extinction.
Evidence from the aftermath of decades‑old conflicts shows the extent to which the use of unconventional weapons and heavy bombardments has harmed human life and the environment. When the environment is damaged, it directly affects human health and well‑being; and if nature is destroyed, the planet becomes uninhabitable for people.
Since there is a direct relationship between infrastructure and the environment, the destruction of facilities such as water and energy systems brings irreversible consequences for nature. If water infrastructure is destroyed, the environment will also face water shortages, and the production of agricultural goods, essential for sustaining human life, will decline.
The attacks on oil refineries and energy facilities causes pollution to the environment as the facilities have toxic material that finds its way into the environment. These materials could spread to the nature in the form of acid rains. Additionally, the smoke raising from explosions causes harm to flora and fauna.
Estimates and international sources, including a report echoed by The Guardian, say that the carbon footprint of these aggressions against Iran so far is equivalent to that of approximately 60 countries in one year. These attacks cause the emission of toxic gases and carbon monoxide into the air, which are hazardous to human health and other living organisms. From the perspective of some experts, since the environment and its phenomena do not recognize political borders, the consequences of toxic gases from the burning of oil depots and refineries will not remain confined to Iran but will spread throughout the region and the world.
In general, given the barbarous Israeli and American attacks on Iran's infrastructure and negative impacts on the environment, the world community should immediately take a firm stance against these crimes, preventing these forms of genocides that endanger lives of humans and other species from setting a precedent.
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