Iran urges more pressure on Israel to cooperate with IAEA after threat of nuking Gaza

Iran’s permanent ambassador to the UN has called on the international community to push Israel to fully cooperate with the UN nuclear agency and dismantle its nuclear weapons program, after an Israeli minister said dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza was on the table.

Amir Saeed Iravani, in a letter to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, described as a “matter of utmost concern” the Israeli threat of using nuclear weapons against the vulnerable and innocent civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

It came after Israel’s so-called heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu said using an atomic bomb against Palestinians in Gaza was “one of the possibilities” and insisted that allowing any humanitarian aid into the blockaded area was wrong.

Underling that it was the second time in just two months that senior Israeli officials had resorted to the threat of using nuclear weapons, Iravani said the regime’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu also made explicit threats regarding the use of such weapons against Iran in his address at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in September.

“The use or even the mere threat of nuclear weapons, irrespective of the circumstances or the responsible party, constitutes a flagrant violation not only of international law but also of the fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter,” the Iranian envoy said.

“Furthermore, what makes this situation even more alarming is when such dire threats originate from the authorities of an occupying regime, which has displayed a consistent disregard for international humanitarian law and is continuing its unabated heinous crimes against the Palestinian people, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity and even using starvation as a method of warfare in the besieged Gaza Strip,” he added.

OIC envoys lash out at Israeli minister's threat to nuke Gaza

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

In his letter to the UN Security Council, Iravani urged the international community to ramp up pressure on the Israeli regime to adhere to its obligations and dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran calls on the international community to condemn the Israeli regime’s reckless and dangerous statements and to apply pressure to ensure that Israel fully cooperates with the IAEA and adheres to its safeguards and verification procedures, dismantles its nuclear weapons program, and joins and fully implements all relevant international treaties and conventions on Weapons of Mass Destruction,” he said.

Israel, which pursues a policy of deliberate ambiguity about possessing nuclear weapons, is estimated to harbor 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, making it the sole possessor of non-conventional arms in West Asia.

The regime has, nevertheless, refused to either allow inspections of its military nuclear facilities or sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Israel has dropped more than 18,000 tons of explosives on Gaza: Government media office

Palestinian officials say the Israeli regime has dropped more than 18,000 tons of explosives on Gaza.

Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, have strongly condemned Israel’s threat of nuking Gaza amid the occupying regime’s ongoing aggression against the besieged area.

Israel waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups launched a surprise attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, into the occupied territories in response to the Israeli regime’s intensified crimes against Palestinians.

According to the Gaza-based health ministry, at least 10,328 Palestinians have been killed in the strikes, most of them women and children, while nearly 26,000 others have been injured.

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