20 December 2006
Iran has called on the UN Security Council to compel Israel to give up any nuclear weapons it might have. Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Javad Zarif, wrote a letter to the Security Council after Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, in a German TV interview, was seen by some to imply for the first time that his country has nuclear weapons. Israel has never officially acknowledged having any atomic bombs and, unlike Iran, is not a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, known as the NPT. Olmert's statement triggered criticism from Arab states that the West was working under a double standard in pressing Iran to suspend its nuclear activities while ignoring Israeli arms. The Iranian letter marked the first formal call for action against Israel by the UN Security Council, which is currently negotiating a resolution that would impose sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear ambitions. Tehran said its nuclear program would only seek to produce electricity. Olmert's hint that Israel might have a nuclear arsenal "has removed any excuse - if there ever were any - for continued inaction by the council in the face of this actual threat to international peace and security," Zarif was quoted by "Reuters" as saying. He urged the Security Council to compel Israel "to abandon nuclear weapons, urge it to accede to the NPT without delay and demand this regime to place promptly all its nuclear facilities under IAEA full-scope safeguards.".
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