19 June 2025, 11:35

By Edmund Fitton-Brown

Accusations over the West's 'double standards' for Israel and Iran's nuclear capabilities ignore the reality of non-proliferation.

The West is often accused of "double standards", whether in the field of human rights or foreign interventions, environmental targets or nuclear proliferation. I have had to answer this charge with monotonous regularity throughout my diplomatic career in the Arab World and my five-year stint with the United Nations.

The accusation that concerns me here is that we have no moral right to prevent countries like Iran from seeking a nuclear capability when Israel has had nuclear weapons for at least half a century and is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Why are we not trying harder to challenge that? Surely we should insist on the whole Middle East becoming a nuclear........

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