The international community should pressure Israel into joining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Iranian envoy to the United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog was quoted by Press TV as saying on Friday.
Making Israel abide by the directives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was the only way to bring peace to the Middle East, Kazem Gharibabadi, said the Iranian ambassador and permanent representative to the IAEA.
According to Xinhua news agency, Gharibabadi made the remarks in a Thursday address to the 62nd Annual Session of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna.
He also criticised the IAEA for what he called “giving in” to the Israeli pressure and for not following up on Israel’s “dangerous” nuclear activities.
Gharibabadi pointed to a longstanding UN-driven proposal to prohibit nuclear weapons in the region, which was passed in 1974 and named the Middle East Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, saying that a “lack of political will” had kept regional states from implementing such international decisions.