Reuters reports: “U.S., Iran clash at UN after Tehran gets nuclear non-proliferation role.” The 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons began in New York City on Monday and continues until May 22.
JOHN STEINBACH, [email protected]
Steinbach is co-founder of the Hiroshima NagasakiPeace Committee of the National Capital Area
He wrote the piece “Comparing Israel’s and Iran’s Nuclear Programs” which states: “Despite being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), since its 1979 revolution … Iran has come under unprecedented scrutiny by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Security Council over its nuclear program. Meanwhile, Israel — one of only four NPT non-signatories (Pakistan, India and North Korea are the others) and the only state in the Middle East actually possessing nuclear weapons — has remained free from any meaningful international oversight. While Iran has suffered debilitating economic sanctions over unproven suspicions that it might have a clandestine nuclear weapons program, Israel, with an arsenal of hundreds of modern nuclear weapons and a sophisticated delivery system capable of targeting the entire Middle East and Europe, is permitted to act with impunity.”
Steinbach also notes the writing of Ricardo Martins: “Is the IAEA Complicit in the Assassination of Iranian Nuclear Scientists? A Crisis of Credibility at the Heart of Non-Proliferation,” which states: “The assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists has long been attributed to Israeli intelligence operations, but recent revelations have cast a shadow over the neutrality of the very agency tasked with safeguarding global nuclear security: the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iran now openly questions whether the IAEA, under its current Director General Rafael Grossi, has become an unwitting — or complicit — partner in these targeted killings.” Also see piece in the British Guardian: “Trust in UN’s nuclear watchdog is broken, Iranian president says.”