A quick reminder of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and their relevance to the Israeli bombing of Iran.
The Non-Proliferation Treaty
Almost all states in the world signed the NPT, in force since 1970. Signatories either promised never to acquire nuclear weapons, or, if they were nuclear-weapon states, to take steps towards total nuclear disarmament. The USA, Russia, UK, France & China are NPT nuclear-state signatories. There are four other nuclear states that have never signed the NPT – Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea.
Nuclear signatories’ failures to disarm are why so many of the non-nuclear states are advocates of the 2021 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which will slowly turn the tide against their world-threatening addiction to nuclear weapons.
The NPT also advocates for peaceful use of nuclear power which is permitted to all non-nuclear states despite the fact that civil nuclear power effectively means access to the materials necessary for making a basic nuclear bomb. Iran is one of the many non-nuclear state signatories and claims its nuclear developments are for peaceful use.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and suspicion of Iran
The IAEA was established to help ensure that civil nuclear power is not used to develop nuclear weapons. Its Secretary General, Rafael Mariano Grossi, leads a staff of inspectors. It is governed by a board of 35 states elected from the total of 180 members. States can join the IAEA even if they are not signatories of the NPT. Israel and Iran are both members.
Iran’s nuclear intentions came under IAEA suspicion leading to sanctions by the UN and EU since 2006/7, having already long been sanctioned by the USA. In 2015, in return for the promised relief of sanctions, Iran agreed to stringent inspections and restrictions on their nuclear activities, a deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), championed by US President Obama. This was ripped up by Trump in his first term as President in 2018. Iran resumed previously abandoned nuclear activities.
On the 19th of this month, the board of the IAEA voted by a small majority (19/35) to support a resolution saying “Iran’s many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019” to provide the IAEA “with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations constitute non-compliance with its obligations”. Israel has used this as justification for bombing despite General Grossi’s pleas for diplomacy, assurances that inspectors were still in Iran trying to conclude their business and warnings about causing radioactive harm to people and planet.
Israeli bombing of nuclear facilities
War around nuclear power stations in Ukraine threatens catastrophe but Israel is the only state that has ever deliberately bombed another state’s nuclear facilities. They did this to a French built nuclear reactor near the capital of Iraq in 1981 citing their view that it would lead to a nuclear bomb. The attack met with international condemnation. Israel has now bombed Iran for the same reason but the bombing also includes many other targets. The bombing of Iran adds further violation of international law by the Israeli government to war crimes in Gaza, illegal settlements and other harms to Palestinian people.
Use your voice
Write to your MP asking our government to not only condemn Israeli bombing of Iran but to stop any and all support for the harms the Israeli government is inflicting on people in their region. This means stopping all British arms to Israel and stopping all means of supporting Israeli military through training, intelligence or any other means. This should also include ending indirect support via arms sent to the USA then relayed to Israel or via UK military support for US complicity with Israel such as enabling British bases to be used for this purpose.