US, Israel prevent realization of a nuke-free Middle East: Iran envoy

Iran’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations complains about the United States and the Israeli regime’s decades-long efforts to prevent the establishment of a nuclear weapons-free Middle East region.

“In our region, the US stance and that of the Israeli regime on the Middle East free zone of nuclear weapons, initiated by Iran in 1974, have prevented the establishment of such a zone,” Majid Takht Ravanchi told a UN General Assembly meeting on Wednesday.

The envoy was referring to the Israeli regime’s ongoing acquisition of weapons of mass destruction, a process that has provided it with hundreds of nuclear warheads. 

Though its weapons program has turned the regime into the region’s sole possessor of nuclear weapons, Tel Aviv neither admits nor denies owning such armaments. It has, meanwhile, invariably evaded scrutiny by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), thanks to constant protection provided for it by the United States on the international stage.

“The Israeli regime possesses all types of weapons of mass destruction and threatens to use them against the regional countries,” Takht Ravanchi said. 

“This regime must be forced to join all related instruments, including the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), without any precondition while accepting the comprehensive safeguards of the IAEA,” he added.

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The ambassador then turned to the issue of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name for the 2015 nuclear agreement that was clinched between the Islamic Republic and world countries.

The US left the deal in 2018 and then reimposed the inhumane, oppressive, and unilateral sanctions that the accord had lifted. It has successfully been forcing many countries into abiding by the coercive measures, including Washington’s allies in the deal—the UK, France, and Germany, also known as E3.

Iran has been enacting a set of remedial nuclear measures in response to the Western allies’ non-commitment to the JCPOA. Tehran has vowed to fully and immediately reverse the retaliatory steps, once those countries resumed their contractual obligations too.

“Onv the JCPOA, the uncontested reality is that until now, Iran has adhered to the JCPOA terms while the US and E3 have failed to meet their JCPOA obligations. Iran is committed to the full implementation of the JCPOA provided that the other participants live up fully to their commitments and lift all unjust sanctions in a speedy and verifiable manner,” Takht Ravachni noted.

He finally asserted, “Iran’s defensive missile capability is being pursued in line with our inherent rights and international commitments.”

The envoy was referring to some countries’ insistence that Iran allow inclusion of its missile program in talks that are concerned with the nuclear deal. Tehran has categorically rejection the prospect given the importance of the missile work to the Islamic Republic’s defensive imperatives.

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