US Pressures Iran on Nuclear Enrichment, but what about Israel’s Nuclear Weapons?
Posted September 30, 2009
(September 30, 2009) WASHINGTON –The President and his administration have called on Iran to act in accordance with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) policies and inspections in light of their failure to to comply with inspections and reports of new construction of a nuclear facility.
The United Kingdom, France and the United States have all issued public statements that could lead to more stringent sanctions on Iran if they fail to let the IAEA conduct inspections on their nuclear facilities.
During the UN General Assembly in New York CBS’s Katie Couric conducted an interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during which she asked about the legitimacy of Iran’s nuclear ambitions:
Couric: The International Atomic Energy Agency, Mr. President, has complained that they have not been given full access to all your facilities. A recent report leaked from the IAEA says you have quote “sufficient information to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device.” Yet you continue to refute this. Why?
Ahmadinejad: Based on the last official report by the agency, issued in September, it was said that Iran had not deviated from its peaceful nuclear path. There are countries that have 10,000 nuclear warheads. Don’t you believe that those are the ones that need to be inspected, instead of the countries that don’t have them?
Should the United States issue sanctions on Iran and does not ask the same from ourselves and allies, such as Israel, what does it say about our platform of transparency and morality? The contradiction of American foreign policy only provides the substance for the spread of anti-American sentiment.
Israel’s nuclear arsenal and the United States ignoring its existence makes it easy for Arab states to claim that US is in cahoots with Israel, thus making us a target for potential terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists.
On September 28th in a briefing held by the State Department Press Secretary Crowley the United States’ concealment of the existence of Israel’s nukes was made even more apparent:QUESTION: What about Israel? If they – they haven’t had to go through these IAEA inspections at all.
MR. CROWLEY: I’ll leave it to Israel to explain its own obligations.
QUESTION: I want to ask my question about Israel again. I just want to know why – if they’re not going through these inspections, why is the U.S. not concerned about this?
MR. CROWLEY: I don’t – I’m not sure I –
QUESTION: With Israel with the nuclear inspections, the IAEA inspections. If they haven’t accepted them, why isn’t the U.S. concerned about that?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, I don’t think that – I’ll defer to Israel again, but I don’t think that Israel is a member of the NPT.
Thank you. Paul.”
For the past 20 years, the Council for the National Interest has lobbied Congress to adopt foreign policies that are even handed and reflect the American national interest. The United States’ efforts to spread democracy with diminutive diplomacy and supplementary military occupation have helped re-sculpt a Middle Eastern political landscape that reduces our credibility in the region.
After 9/11 the United States went after the Taliban and wiped-out the government in Afghanistan – Iran’s biggest threat to the east. Then the U.S. turned around and disposed of Saddam Hussein – Iran’s biggest enemy to the west
Now the United States is giving Iran and Islamic extremists another case for recruiting potential members of an anti-American regime: US bias on who can obtain nuclear weapons, and how they are monitored.
