Tehran: Israel’s development of its covert nuclear weapons program a constant threat to world’s security, stability

Iran has stressed that Israel’s development of its covert program for nuclear weapons poses a serious and constant threat to security and stability in the world and to the effectiveness of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The Iranian Permanent Envoy at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Kazem Gharibabadi said in a statement on Thursday that the “Middle East region, except the Israeli entity, are parties to the NPT and have undertaken to accept the Agency’s comprehensive Safeguards. Therefore, the development of a secret nuclear weapons program by Israel poses a continuous serious threat not only to the security and stability of the region and the world, but also to the effectiveness and efficiency of the NPT and the Agency’s safeguards system.”

Gharibabadi made it clear that despite many resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and the IAEA over decades about Israel’s nuclear capabilities and their threats, Israel continues to ignore the international community by downplaying the significance of the NPT and refusing to place all its nuclear facilities and activities under the IAEA’s comprehensive safeguards system.

 He criticized the clear contradiction in the fact that Israel, which is a non-member to the NPT, enjoys the full rights and privileges of the IAEA due to its membership, while at the same time it considers itself free from any responsibility and it even participates in all the activities of the agency related to the NPT members.

Hamda Mustafa