Iranian diplomat says Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal exposes NPT double standard

The head of the Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies said that by any serious measure Israel has no qualification whatsoever to possess weapons of mass destruction, yet it is the state whose nuclear arms Western governments refuse even to name. Recalling President Masoud Pezeshkian's remarks at the UN General Assembly, he said the president had summed up the contradiction in one sentence: "The atomic bomb is in Israel, but the inspectors are in Iran." He described the sentence as an indictment of the international system as a whole.

The official, identified in the report as a deputy foreign minister, said the double standard is visible in several ways: inspectors are sent to a country that has the legal right to enrich uranium, while absolute silence is maintained over an arsenal built entirely outside any legal framework; Washington and European capitals give all-out support to a state that never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty; and pressure is applied to a government that has never left the treaty.

He said that when Iran defends itself it is defending its national sovereignty and its people, and beyond that it is defending the fundamental principles of international law and the UN Charter. He said Iran's defense is directed against states that consider themselves above the law, against Israel and its nuclear arsenal, and against distorted narratives that seek to invert objective realities.

He further said the Iran case today is a test of the credibility and the very pillar of survival of the Non-Proliferation Treaty worldwide. The remarks were carried by Mehr News Agency (MNA).