US spends $100bn on ICBMs while opposing Iran’s defensive missiles: Zarif

In a tweet on Wednesday night, Mohammad Javad Zarif said “the US insists Iran must not enjoy peaceful nuclear energy, buy any defense equipment, and build defensive missiles,” while it “spends $100 billion on new nuclear ICBMs, builds secret ‘new’ nukes, and floods regional clients with over $380 billion worth of arms.”

The top Iranian diplomat censured the US approach as “breathtaking hypocrisy”.

Zarif attached to his tweet an image of a recent news article that says the US Air Force has awarded a $13.3-billion contract for nuclear missiles.

The US insists Iran must not:

– Enjoy peaceful nuclear energy
– Buy any defense equipment
– Build defensive missiles

Meanwhile, the US:

– Spends $100B on new nuclear ICBMs
– Builds secret “new” nukes
– Floods regional clients with $380B+ worth of arms

Hypocrisy: Breathtaking pic.twitter.com/0z5BL5vFzV— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 9, 2020

He also attached a screenshot of a CNN report with quotes from Washington Post veteran Bob Woodward’s new book “Rage”, which includes a series of interviews with US President Donald Trump.

Trump has reportedly boasted to Woodward about a new secret weapons system.

“I have built a nuclear — a weapons system that nobody’s ever had in this country before,” Trump told Woodward. The journalist says other sources confirmed the information, without providing further details but expressed surprise that Trump disclosed it.

The US’ huge spending on development of new nuclear weapons, including ICBMs, comes as the White House has spared no effort in the past decade to stop Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program, and insists that Iran abandons its defensive missile development.

It has also tried, in vain, to extend a UN arms embargo against Iran, which is to expire in October, in a bid to prevent the Islamic Republic from purchasing defense equipment from other countries.

However, Washington has turned the Middle East into a “powder keg” with its arms sales to the Arab countries of the region, according to Zarif.

“Over the past year alone, they [Western countries] sold 100 billion dollars’ worth of weapons to the [countries] of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council,” the Iranian diplomat said last year.

“Arms imports by countries in the Middle East increased by 61 percent between 2010–14 and 2015–19, and accounted for 35 percent of total global arms imports over the past five years. Saudi Arabia was the world’s largest arms importer in 2015–19. Its imports of major arms increased by 130 percent compared with the previous five-year period and it accounted for 12 percent of global arms imports in 2015–19,” a study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said earlier this year.

“A total of 73 percent of Saudi Arabia’s arms imports came from the USA and 13 percent from the UK,” the report added.