Iran faults UN inaction on Israeli nuclear arms

United Nations, Dec 24: Iran accused the UN Security Council yesterday of pursuing a double standard in imposing sanctions on what it said was Tehran's peaceful nuclear program while ignoring Israel's nuclear arsenal.

''It is indisputable that nuclear weapons in the hands of the Israeli regime with an unparalleled record of noncompliance with Security Council resolutions ... poses a uniquely grave threat to regional and international peace and security,'' said Iranian UN Ambassador Javad Zarif.

''The same governments which have pushed this council to take groundless punitive measures against Iran's peaceful nuclear program have systematically prevented it from taking any action to nudge the Israeli regime towards submitting itself to the rules governing the nuclear nonproliferation regime,'' Zarif told the 15-nation council.

He spoke after the council unanimously approved a resolution imposing sanctions on Iran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and ballistic missiles, in a move aimed at getting Tehran to halt uranium enrichment work and return to negotiations on the future of its nuclear program.

Zarif referred to remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who implied for the first time in a recent German TV interview that his country had nuclear weapons.

Israel had never before acknowledged having atomic bombs and, unlike Iran, is not a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, known as the NPT.

Israel is assumed to have about 200 nuclear weapons, said Hans Blix, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog, last June.

Israel has pushed hard for international action against Iran's nuclear program, pointing to statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowing to wipe Israel off the map.

Zarif last week wrote the Security Council formally calling for action against Israel.

Olmert's hint that Israel has a nuclear arsenal had removed any excuse for continued international inaction, he said.

REUTERS