Gharibabadi made the remarks when elaborating on Iran’s stances against a report released by the IAEA director-general regarding the safeguards.
Noting that all Middle East countries, except for the Zionist regime, are members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and have committed themselves to accept the IAEA’s safeguards, Gharibabadi said that developing a secret nuclear weapon program by the Zionist regime is a serious persisting threat not only to the security and stability of the region and the World, but also for the effectiveness of NPT and the Agency’s safeguards.
Needless to mention, he continued, the Zionist regime is not a member of any of the other disarmament and WMD non-proliferation WMD treaties.
He added that the nuclear capabilities of the Zionist regime and its threats have been put on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly while the IAEA has issued several resolutions in this regard.
But the Zionist regime has neglected the international community by ignoring the NPT, avoiding joining it, and not putting all its facilities and nuclear activities under IAEA’s safeguards inspections, the Iranian envoy said.
Gharibabadi also said that Israel has enjoyed more preferential advantages compared to the nuclear-weapon states (NWS) because the NWS are NPT members and have special commitments, especially under articles 1 and 6 of the treaty, whereas the Zionist regime is out of it, is free of any commitments, and enjoys all the advantages of the Agency which are relevant to the NPT. Such a condition have emboldened the Zionist regime to ridicule the authority and the mission of the Agency for preventing deviation of materials and nuclear activities.
He further described it as an overt contradiction that a non-member of NPT uses all the advantages of the IAEA and considers itself free of any responsibilities and participates in all the meetings.
Most importantly, he said, it has been so emboldened that it distorts realities and criticizes some of the members of the NPT, because they have commitments and it does not.
This is a serious shortcoming in the IAEA and needs to be properly dealt with, he added.
Gharibabadi went on to say that the Agency as part of its distinct role in implementing the decisions and resolutions of general meetings has to take up a clear stance about Israel’s staying out of the NPT framework and its constant resistance against putting all its nuclear activities and facilities under of Agency’s comprehensive safeguards.
He termed it ironic that the IAEA, its secretariat, Board of Governors, and general conferences are all focusing on NPT members, while ignoring the materials and the activities of the Zionist regime in the unstable region of the Middle East is a chronic strategic mistake.
He went on to ask that in such a condition, what is the advantage of being a NPT member and implementing the safeguards? How can the global community see the Agency as a serious, professional, impartial partner while the comprehensive safeguards regime is not applied to its members identically and justly and it doesn’t even seriously discuss the necessity of verification and inspections of Israel’s nuclear activities? Does the silence about the Israeli nuclear deal not send a message to the NPT members that membership means accepting the strongest verification and monitoring systems and staying out of it means freedom of any commitments and even receiving bonuses?
The seasonal meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors started on Monday and finished on Friday.
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