Speaking with the IAEA Board of Governors, Reza Najafi on Thursday also criticized Israel for not adhering to international nuclear treaties, and the international community for ignoring it.
“While nuclear scientists across the entire Middle East have been assassinated by Israeli-hired terrorists, the regime’s nuclear experts are allowed access to some countries’ nuclear facilities,” he said, according to reports in Iranian media.
“Unfortunately, the Zionist Regime has ignored the rightful requests of the international community in the last years, and having the blind support of some western countries and with infringing all international laws and regulations, has pushed its dangerous military nuclear program forward.”
Four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated by the Israeli regime between 2010 and 2012. Iran has incriminated the IAEA for leaking information about the four scientists to the Israeli regime.
Najafi strongly condemned the Western states for their disregard for the standing international laws of nuclear non-proliferation, which prohibit all types of nuclear cooperation with Israel and the transfer of nuclear materials and equipment to the entity.
Israel, which has refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or allow inspections of its military nuclear facilities, keeps an estimated stockpile of some 200-400 nuclear warheads, making it the sole nuclear-armed party in the Middle East. Leaked emails from former US secretary of state Colin Powell have also confirmed the Israeli regime’s possession of nuclear weapons.
Najafi called the nuclear capability held by Israel, which has a history riddled with invasion, occupation, and state terrorism, a threat to international peace and security.
Also speaking at the IAEA Board of Governors’ meeting on behalf of the agency’s Arab members, Hamad Al Kabbi, the Emirati IAEA envoy, blasted some Western states’ support for Israel’s nuclear program.
Al Kabbi also blamed the West for the failure of the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT to adopt a final document aimed at achieving a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.
The American and the European Union’s missions to the agency were reportedly irked by the regional countries for bringing up the issue and attacking Israel.
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11 March 2017 - 12:33
News ID: 816997
(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Iran’s ambassador to the United Nation’s atomic agency said that “Israel-hired terrorists” were behind the assassinations of several nuclear scientists in recent years.
