Tehran and Tel Aviv have engaged in a years-long debate about one another’snuclear intentions, with Israeli officials accusing the Islamic Republic oftrying to build up a nuclear arsenal to attack Israel, and Iran counteringby pointing out that the Jewish State is the only nation in the Middle Eastwhich actually already has nuclear weapons.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has appealed to theinternational community to pressure Israel to join the Treaty on theNon-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and eliminate its stockpile ofnukes.
“The international community must compel Israel – which has aggression inits very DNA – to promptly accede to the NPT and destroy its nucleararsenal,” Zarif said, speaking in a pre-recorded virtual address to the UNon Friday.
“And given its six decades of deception and clandestine development ofnuclear weapons, it must be compelled to submit to the most intrusiveinspection regime that law-abiding members of the NPT observe,” he added.
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Accusing the US, which he dubbed “the world’s lone perpetrator of a nuclearattack,” of blindly supporting Israel, “the sole possessor of a nucleararsenal in our region,” Zarif complained about Tel Aviv’s alleged threatsto use nuclear weapons against other nations, “all while crying wolf aboutproliferation.”
The top diplomat also blasted Washington for its own efforts to create newnuclear bombs and lower the threshold for their use, and accused the Trumpadministration of ‘damaging’ the NPT with its decision to withdraw from theIntermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, and the Iran nucleardeal.
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Iranian officials have repeatedly accused Israel and the United States ofbeing ‘the two main obstacles’ to the four-and-a-half decade old idea of aweapons of mass destruction-free Middle East. Tehran dismantled its ownstocks of chemical weapons in the mid-1990s before ratifying the ChemicalWeapons Convention in 1997 (which Israel has signed but not ratified).
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Israel maintains a policy of ‘nuclear ambiguity’.Althoughit is thought tohave a stockpile of between 80 and 400 nuclear warheads deliverable byaircraft, submarines and the Jericho III intercontinental ballisticmissile, Tel Aviv neither denies nor confirms its status as a nuclearpower.
Tel Aviv has accused the Islamic Republic of maintaining a secret nuclearweapons programme, and has demanded “paralyzing” sanctions against thecountry over Iran’s alleged violation of its obligations under the JointComprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal. Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu has also stressed repeatedly that Israel would “not allow” Tehranto achieve nuclear weapons capability, and said Israel would “continue toact methodically against Iran’s attempts to militarily entrench on ourborders.”
On Tuesday, at a memorial to Israeli soldiers who died during the YomKippur War of October 1973, Netanyahu warned that Israel was “not rulingout a preliminary strike” against Iran, saying Tel Aviv would be “ready tofight” if Tehran tries to establish a presence north of Israel.
