IAEA Should Put Israel’s Nuclear Program on Agenda as Threat to World

Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency has told the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna that Israel’s nuclear program poses threat to the international peace and security.

Speaking at the board’s quarterly meeting on Thursday, Reza Najafi said Israel’s nuclear capabilities should be put on the IAEA’s agenda as a real threat to the regional and international peace and security.

The supervision should continue until Tel Aviv joins the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) unconditionally and all the regime’s clandestine nuclear facilities are placed under the UN agency’s Safeguards, he added, according to Press TV.

 Najafi slammed the West’s double standards with regard to Israel’s nuclear program and called for a complete ban on any nuclear cooperation with Israel and transferring of nuclear material and equipment to the regime.

The Iranian envoy pointed to repeated calls by the international community and IAEA resolutions as well as the NPT Review conferences for immediate accession of Israel to the NPT and supervision over Tel Aviv’s entire nuclear facilities under the IAEA safeguards.

He warned that the regime has continued the military dimension of its nuclear program through its ignorance of the legitimate demands of the global community, reliance on the support of certain countries and blatant violation of the international law.

Israel is widely believed to be the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East with up to 400 undeclared nuclear warheads.

Tel Aviv has rejected global calls to join the NPT, refusing to allow international inspectors to observe its controversial nuclear program.

Israel’s nuclear activities were uncovered when whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu, originally a technician at Dimona nuclear facility, handed overwhelming evidence of the regime’s nuclear program to Britain’s Sunday Times in 1986.

H.M