‘Grave threat’: Iran says Israel’s nukes endangering world, blasts US nuclear spending spree

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the international community must push the Israeli regime to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and put all its nuclear facilities under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards.

Araghchi made the remark in an address to the High-Level Segment of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in the Swiss city of Geneva on Monday.

“The international community must hold this regime accountable, and demand that it renounce the possession of nuclear weapons, accede to the NPT as a non-nuclear-weapon party, and subject all its nuclear facilities and activities to the comprehensive IAEA Safeguards,” he said.

He said the weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons possessed by the Israeli regime, continue to pose a grave threat to regional and global peace and security.

The minister emphasized that the Israeli regime is hindering the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in West Asia and continues to threaten others with nuclear annihilation.

Israel is estimated to possess 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, making it the sole possessor of non-conventional arms in West Asia.

It has refused to either allow inspections of its nuclear facilities or sign the NPT.

Araghchi cited the evil suggestion of using nuclear weapons against the people of Palestine in the Gaza Strip as a vivid example of the Israeli regime’s outlawed action.

“We categorically condemn this illegitimate, illegal, and irresponsible action and position,” the Iranian foreign minister said.

Araghchi added that the Israeli regime inflicted the most horrifying record of aggression, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in the 21st century in the occupied Palestinian territory, which no human conscience should tolerate.

“The deliberate war crimes, ethnic cleansing, mass starvation, and collective punishment exercised by the Israeli regime shall not remain unpunished.”

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Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

However, the Tel Aviv regime failed to achieve its declared objectives of freeing captives and eliminating Hamas despite killing more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza.

After 15 months of war, Israel was forced to accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas to end the war and exchange prisoners.

Unilateralism has dangerous consequences for international peace

Elsewhere in his address, the top Iranian diplomat warned against the dangerous consequences of unilateralism for international peace and security.

“Unilateralism indeed is terminology for lawlessness and extreme resort to power, which pose serious threat to international peace and security,” Araghchi said.

“Despite the increasing likelihood of a nuclear war - driven mainly by modernization efforts and an escalating nuclear arms race - nuclear-weapon states, in particular the United States, are significantly increasing their budgets for nuclear weapons programs.”

Simultaneously, he added, countries like Britain are expanding their nuclear stockpiles and lowering the threshold for possible nuclear weapon use.

The Iranian foreign minister said the world is currently witnessing increasing resort to the use or threat of force, military intervention, unilateral coercive measures, and political pressure, in disregard to the longstanding commitments to disarmament and arms control.

“This is an alarming trend that must be reversed immediately,” he said.

The Iranian minister pointed to the erosion of key nuclear arms control agreements and warned against widespread non-compliance with legally binding obligations related to nuclear disarmament, particularly under Article VI of the NPT.

“Regrettably, there is no promising prospect for change in the foreseeable future. The international community rightfully expects the nuclear-weapon states to be held accountable for their obligations,” he said.

Araghchi said nuclear weapons “continue to be an existential” threat to humanity, explaining that their use would result in catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences.

The minister stressed that the United Nations must put nuclear disarmament high on its priority, saying, “To this end, the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons must remain a taboo.”

“The only guaranteed safeguard against their use or threat lies in their complete and verifiable elimination, accompanied by legally binding assurances of non-production, avoidance of nuclear sharing, as well as non-formation of nuclear military alliances,” Araghchi stated.

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