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Iran calls for Israel's nuclear disarmament

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Iran nuclear deal can mark the beginning of nuclear disarmament across the world.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says now that his country has accepted strict curbs on its nuclear program, it鈥檚 time for Israel and the world's other nuclear powers to begin their disarmament.

In an article on Friday, Mr. Zarif argues that while non-nuclear-weapon states, like Iran, have 鈥渨alked the walk鈥� to conform with the non-proliferation regime, states possessing destructive weapons have hardly even 鈥渢alked the talk鈥� and rejected the (NPT) and customary international law.

鈥淭oday, in light of the Vienna deal, it is high time that the nuclear 鈥渉aves鈥� remedied the gap by adopting serious disarmament measures and reinforcing the non-proliferation regime,鈥� wrote Zarif.

After two years of negotiation, Iran and six world powers reached a nuclear deal on July 14 in Vienna.

Israel has been the most vocal opponent of the deal. Its security cabinet and the country鈥檚 officials have said they .

Zarif, on the other hand, said on Friday that the deal is "symbolically significant enough" to "mark the beginning of a new era for the non-proliferation regime.鈥�

Israel is widely believed to be the only owner of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, with . Israeli officials, however, have never publicly confirmed the existence of their nuclear arsenal.

Bruce Riedel, the director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, contends聽 that Israel is the country that started the nuclear arms race in the region. 鈥淪ome have argued the Vienna deal will start a nuclear arms race in the region,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n fact, a nuclear arms race has been underway in the Middle East for 65 years. Israel won it.鈥�

Mr. Riedel聽asserts that Israel has a right to develop a nuclear arsenal since it has been at war since its birth. But, he said suggesting that Israel is an impotent defenseless country is not correct, adding that the country has been benefiting from 鈥渆normous amounts of American intelligence and military support.鈥�

Riedel's piece goes on to say that Iran deal should be debated in the context of the balance of power in the Middle East. 鈥淎 comprehensive and thorough discussion of the balance of power should include Israel鈥檚 real strategic situation.鈥�

Zarif鈥檚 Friday remarks does not single out Israel. In his note he called for the nuclear disarmament of all countries possessing weapons of mass destruction.

All five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council 鈥� the US, Russia, China, the UK and France 鈥� are armed with nuclear weapons.

And besides these countries, there are other nuclear-armed states which, like Israel, : India, Pakistan and North Korea. Israel, India and Pakistan have never been signatories of the Treaty, and North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003.