Iran reassures Arabs over nuclear work

A senior member of the Iranian parliament has reassured regional Arab countries that Tehran’s nuclear work will not pose a threat to them.

Kazem Jalali, Rapporteur of the Iranian Parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, said in Bahrain that Iran was by no means a threat to the region.

“Iran is not a threat to regional countries and its capabilities are at the service of them,” Jalali said, adding that Iran was willing to share its nuclear achievements with Arab regional countries.

He said Western countries were seeking to spread Iranophobia in the region, warning that Iran was not the sole target of “Western plots”.

Heshmatollah Falahat-Pisheh, another member of the Iranian parliament, also echoed Jalali’s remarks, and said, “Iran’s nuclear technology is not a threat to its regions. It is at the service of Iran’s neighbors.”

Despite the fact that no evidence has been published to the contrary, some Western countries accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons.

US officials have on several occasions traveled to the region to persuade Arab nations that Iran, not Israel, is the main challenge to the region.

Under the allegation that Iran’s nuclear work “is going to spark an arms race in the Middle East,” the US has been long trying to build an Arab coalition against Iran.

The US mission to stop Iran’s nuclear work has taken the form of constructing nuclear facilities in the United Arab Emirates as well.

Unlike Israel, Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its nuclear work is being monitored by the UN nuclear watchdog.