Iran’s IAEA envoy: Britain and France violating Non-Proliferation Treaty

Ali Ashgar Soltanieh (right)

Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post

In what is likely to be interpreted as an antagonistic move in times of heightened tension between the West and Iran, the Iranian Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that both Britain and France (and likely other nations he didn’t mention) have violated the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, better known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

This is especially interesting given that the West, with Israel being by far the loudest voice on the world scene, continues to take an aggressive approach to the Iranian nuclear program, even going as far as to demand that all nuclear materials be removed from Iran and calling negotiations with Iran a “trap.”

These statements are made even though the head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Lieutenant General Benny Gantz confirmed, along with U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and the U.S. intelligence community, that Iran isn’t developing nuclear weapons.

The Iranian Ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said at the NPT Review Preparatory Committee held in Vienna that some of the world’s nuclear powers, including Britain and France, have violated the NPT already.

He points to their move to modernize their nuclear arsenals and said that the nations should be held accountable to both the international community and their own people.

It is worth pointing out that one of the world’s most staunch anti-Iranian nations, Israel, is not a signatory to the NPT and refuses to allow inspections of their nuclear arsenal and facilities.

Soltanieh pointed to “the plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the modernization of nuclear arsenals” and “constructing new facilities for production of new nuclear weapons” which he says are all “clear indications” of these nations going violating their obligation to begin nuclear disarmament under the NPT, according to Iran’s Press TV.

He also said that the reduction of nuclear weapons cannot be seen as a complete replacement for total nuclear disarmament. He added that reductions in arsenals cannot guarantee a nuclear weapon-free world, something which I personally wholeheartedly agree with.

It is not just my opinion or the opinion of countless anti-nuclear activists across the globe, indeed it is also outlined in Article VI of the NPT which mandates “general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”

Obviously the major Western powers have largely ignored this provision.

It is very much worth noting that while the NPT indeed calls for “general and complete disarmament” Article IV specifically states that uranium enrichment is an “inalienable right” of all of the signatories, meaning that the calls from Israel and other nations are completely worthless.

This is especially true when one considers that Israel isn’t even a signatory, although hypocrisy isn’t quite alien to the terrorist state of Israel.

Keep in mind there have been reports which indicated that the United States will demand the closure of at least one nuclear facility and a complete halt to all uranium production and enrichment during the nuclear negotiations.

What is more, British officials have taken a similar approach, like the Ambassador to the IAEA for the United Kingdom from 2001 to 2006, Peter Jenkins.

In an article for the Telegraph, Jenkins wrote, “our objective was to put a stop to all enrichment in Iran. That has remained the West’s aim ever since, despite countless Iranian reminders that they are unwilling to be treated as a second-class party to the NPT – with fewer rights than other signatories – and despite all the evidence that the Iranian character is more inclined to defiance than buckling under pressure.”

One especially poignant comment on the article came from an individual identified as Mark Stephen Golding who wrote, “Correct Peter except for one ‘small’ point – Britain and America are gunning for regime change in Iran and so called ‘sanctions’ – a strange word for ‘strangulation’ or chocking the pipe that feeds a country’ – are ‘curtain raisers’ for war and with it the complete destruction of a countries infrastructure together with the murder and mutilation of it’s [sic] people – as history records with the massacre of Iraq, the ‘no fly zone’ crushing of Libya for strategic resources and agent Cameron’s threats to Somalia.”

Of course there is also the statement from the British Foreign Secretary William Hague in an interview with the British state media outlet, the BBC, on April 17, 2012.

When the interviewer asked if they would ever tell Iran that they could enrich uranium to low levels, to which he replied, “I don’t think we can give a public commentary all through the details of negotiations,” while also saying that they had not begun to delve into the issues.

“Certainly our position, in line with UN Security Council resolutions, is that enrichment must stop. That is absolutely right,” Hague added.

It is clear that while it is not only the case that Western nations regularly violate the NPT, these same nations take a wholly hypocritical approach to Iran while treating them as if they do not have the same rights under the NPT as the rest of the signatories.

Considering this, it’s quite easy to understand why the Iranians are getting quite exhausted dealing with the antagonistic approach of the West.

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This article first appeared at End the Lie.