Iran: US hypocritical on Israel nukes

After the US opposed what it has called efforts to single out Israel in nuclear talks, Tehran accused Washington of adopting double standards towards nuclear issues.

Iran’s ambassador to the UN Mohammad Khazaee said Friday that the US reaction to the final declaration of the NPT conference was a “clear manifestation” of its hypocrisy.

“The US [verbal] attack on Iran, as an NPT member, along with its opposition to the conference [declaration] which urges Israel to join the NPT, is a clear manifestation of Washington’s double standard nuclear policy,” Khazaee told IRNA on the sidelines of the NPT conference in New York.

The month-long Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference ended in New York on Friday with member states eventually having reached an agreement on a final statement.

In the final declaration, all 189 NPT members called for a conference to be held in 2012 leading to the establishment of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East.

The statement also mentioned “the importance of Israel’s accession to the treaty and the placement of all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards.”

The US agreed to the declaration in principle but strongly opposed the very part about Israel.

“We strongly oppose efforts to single out Israel, and will oppose actions that jeopardize Israel’s national security,” US President Barack Obama said in a statement.

He then accused Iran of failing to live up to its obligations and labeled Tehran the greatest threat to the Middle East.

“The greatest threat to proliferation in the Middle East, and to the NPT, is Iran’s failure to live up to its NPT obligations,” Obama said.

Israel, which is widely believed to be among the world’s biggest nuclear-armed powers, maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity over its nuclear work and continues to defy international calls to join the NPT.