Time to Deal With Israeli Nukes

That’s why Iran has once again urged the international community to pressure Israel into joining the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Deputy Representative of the Islamic Republic to the United Nations Es’haq Al-e Habib says the international community must force Tel Aviv to join the NPT and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to access its nuclear facilities considering the Israeli regime's destructive role in the region.

Addressing a virtual meeting on the anniversary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on Thursday, Al-e Habib stressed that the destructive role of the United States and Israel has prevented the realization of a Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Free Zone in the Middle East.

He slammed the US' negative role in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and said with 1,054 nuclear tests, Washington has had the highest number of such tests in comparison to other countries. 

He referred to the US as the possessor of the world's largest nuclear arsenal and the only country to have used nuclear weapons, and said Washington not only has no intention to end testing nuclear weapons and join the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty but also continues to modernize and strengthen its nuclear arsenal.

No doubt nuclear disarmament remains at the top of the international community's agenda, and all nuclear tests must be stopped since they are against the soul of CTBT and commitment to nuclear disarmament as per the Article VI of the NPT.

The timing of Iran’s call could not have been more relevant. The International Atomic Energy Agency has already voted against a resolution, which would have expressed formal “concern” over Israel’s nuclear arsenal, and urged them to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

No longer concerned with their conscience, the United States keeps telling the world that the real problem in volatile Middle East is Iran. This is while Israel’s nuclear arsenal – the gravest threat to regional peace – continues to endanger the non-proliferation Treaty. The regime has not even bothered to declare its intention to accede to the Treaty and/or abandon its weapons of mass destruction program.

Israel's nuclear-weapons project could never have got off the ground without an enormous contribution from Western governments. That explains why Tel Aviv, confident about the political and military support of the Western powers, has neither acceded to the NPT nor placed its nuclear facilities under the IAEA safeguards.

Lest we forget, the IAEA officials hold that the main danger to peace in Middle East isn’t Iran – which doesn’t have nukes, has signed the NPT, and officially and religiously abjures the possibility - but Israel, which has been covertly making bombs, breaking a treaty banning nuclear tests, as well as countless international laws restricting the traffic in nuclear materials and technology.

On that note, Middle East will never become a region free of nuclear weapons unless all members of the IAEA exert pressure on Israel to compel it to accede as a non-nuclear weapon party to the NPT and to place all of its nuclear activities and installations under the IAEA safeguards. The show cannot go on forever and there must be a deadline for this.

Indeed, the developing nations don’t trust the nuclear weapon states given their double-standard approach toward Iran’s civilian nuclear program and that of Israel, which possesses actual nuclear warheads. They also want an immediate ban on all nuclear weapons, as they are illegal and their illegality should be recognized through a legally binding Nuclear Weapons Convention at the UN.

The proposed Convention could deal with the issue of Israeli nukes as well. The body should establish a committee with a mandate to begin all-party talks to this end. As well, the UN Security Council members will have to bear the primary responsibility in the talks and undertake nuclear disarmement and denuclearization obligations, pending the conclusion of the Convention - if indeed they have genuine concerns about proliferation in the Middle East and beyond.