- The global community must be anxious about the fast-unraveling geopolitical scenario with multiple warfronts opening in the form of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and now the Israel-Iran standoff, raising widespread concerns. One of the most concerning factors that must be affecting the global community is the nuclear flareup that may blow up in the face of heat being generated by the ongoing conflicts. As you are aware, soon after the Cold War conundrum almost took the universe to the brink, better sense prevailed, leading to curtailment of nuclear accumulation from going berserk with irresponsible state actors stepping up. However, the ongoing conflicts, especially between Israel and Iran, must be causing concerns everywhere.
PC: Agenzia Nova
- Further, hitting working nuclear facilities, as Israel is doing and the US may do, is simply reckless, given the chance of a radiation leak. As you know, August will mark 80 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in over 2.2L deaths. The aftermath affected the victor, vanquished, and the rest, and almost all nations agreed that nukes must not spread. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT, resulted from this consensus in 1970. Iran was among its original signatories, and Israel was not. And the pact has held up well, with only nine nuclear-armed states so far. All significant nuclear events since Nagasaki – Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima – have been accidents in times of peace.
PC: France 24
- And each one has led to enhanced safeguards. But an old recklessness is creeping back. Soon after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russia shelled and seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest. Luckily, there was no radiation leak. And last week, Israel bombed three of Iran’s major nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow. Now it has bombed Iran’s Arak nuclear reactor, while the world’s attention is riveted on Trump’s plan to pulverize Fordow with bunker buster bombs. These are extremely irresponsible and dangerous moves, as damage to an operational nuclear site can result in another Chernobyl. One thought this cavalier attitude had become taboo a long time ago.
PC: Good Morning America
Sadly, it’s like 1981 again when Israel destroyed Iraq’s brand-new, French-made Osirak reactor at the Tuwaitha complex on the same pretext of self-preservation that it’s been brandishing against Iran for decades. But Osirak was still a month away from being fuelled up. The Israelis themselves admitted they couldn’t have touched it afterwards for fear of blanketing Baghdad with radiation. They exercised care in 2007 also, when they destroyed Syria’s under-construction al-Kibar facility. Now, Putin, Bibi, and Trump have no qualms at all about attacking functioning reactors. Many other countries that have been watching these developments with alarm will think it prudent to get their own nuclear shield. A nuclearized world will only push us closer. Beware!
