Bushehr or Bushire (بوشهر), pop. 132,824 (Iran, facing the Persian Gulf, and the chief seaport of the country. It is the administrative centre of Bushehr province. Location is 28° 59’ N, 50° 49’ E, about 400 km south of Tehran. The local climate is hot and humid.

Location of Bushehr in Iran

Bushehr was founded in 1736 by Nadir Shah, and used as a base by the British Royal Navy in the 18th century. It became an important commercial port in the 19th century. Bushehr was occupied by British forces in 1856, and again in 1915, the second time due to German intriguing, most notably by Wilhelm Wassmuss.

Industries include fishing and a thermoelectric power plant, while the inland area (also called Bushehr) produces Shiraz wine, metalwork, rugs and other textiles, cement, and fertilizer. The Iranian navy has a base here.

Bushehr is near (12 km) the site of a nuclear power plant being built in cooperation with Russia. The work actually started as a Siemens project to build two reactors in 1974, but the revolution in 1979 halted work when one reactor was 85% complete. The reactors were then damaged by multiple Iraqi air strikes between 1984 and 1988. Iran subsequently requested that Siemens finish construction, but Siemens declined because of diplomatic pressure from the United States, and the contractual dispute is yet to be resolved.

In 1995, Russia signed a contract to supply a light water reactor for the plant. Although the agreements calls for the spent fuel rods to be sent back to Russia for reprocessing, the US has expressed concern that Iran would reprocess the rods itself, in order to obtain plutonium for atomic bombs. In August 2004 a top U.S. arms-control official stated that Tehran could develop nuclear weapons within three years if left unchecked. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said in Washington that "Iran has told the EU three [Britain, France, and Germany] that it could possess nuclear weapons within three years." For context see Iran's nuclear program.

Postage stamps

Bushehr has long been of interest to stamp collectors, because during their 1915 occupation, the British issued postage stamps. The occupation was very short, lasting only from August 8 to October 16, when it was terminated by agreement with the Persian government. The British wasted no time getting their stamp program started; the first overprints, on Persian stamps of 1911, and reading "BUSHIRE / Under British / Occupation.", appeared on August 15. The same overprint was applied in September, to the series of Persian stamps issued in 1915. All of these overprints are uncommon, the cheapest costing US$25 and the rarer varieties ranging up to US$6,000. As might be expected, forgeries have been produced.