Iran FM Araghchi warns of contamination risk after U.S.-Israeli strikes on Bushehr nuclear power plant

U.S.-Israeli strikes hit an area near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant on Saturday (April 4, 2026), prompting its Foreign Minister to warn that the effects of any fallout would be felt most keenly by the country’s Gulf neighbours.

The strike near the Bushehr nuclear plant killed a guard and led Russia, which partly constructed the facility and helps operate it, to announce it was evacuating 198 workers.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that continued attacks on the plant on Iran’s 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.

International Atomic Energy Agency expresses concern

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 the strike, which he said was the fourth such incident in recent weeks.

“NPP (nuclear power plant) sites or nearby areas must never be attacked,” he said.

There were also more strikes on Tehran, where an AFP journalist saw a thick haze of grey smoke covering the skyline.

“Things are really hard right now. You can’t even plan six hours ahead,” a 40-year-old photographer living in the capital told AFP

“There’s really nothing we can do. We don’t have the power to change the situation,” said the man, who has been selling his belongings online to make ends meet.

The strikes came as the search continued for a missing U.S. airman whose fighter jet went down over Iran, and as Tehran announced fresh attacks in the region, with the Revolutionary Guards saying they carried out a drone strike on a commercial ship in Bahrain allegedly linked to Israel.

The war erupted more than a month ago with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei, triggering a retaliation that has spread the conflict throughout the West Asia and convulsed the global economy.