TEHRAN - A Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University says countries in the Middle East region should realize that Israel is willing to nuclear weapons whenever it feels it “is in danger”.

“All countries in the region should know that Israel would use nuclear bomb whenever is in danger,” Seyed Hossein Mousavian tells the Tehran Times in an exclusive interview.

Following is the text of the interview:

Question: Amihai Eliyahu, an Israeli far-right minister, has said that “one of Israel’s options in the war in Gaza is to drop a nuclear bomb on the Strip.” What does this dangerous threat indicate?

Answer: This statement means that:

1) Israel admitted that it had nuclear weapons – something the country has never admitted and 2) Israel is also willing to use them.

Q: The statement by Eliyahu was a bombshell that may prompt other countries in the region to go after atomic bombs. In that situation, a nuclear arms race would begin in the region. To prevent such a possibly dangerous situation, what strategies are needed to be taken?

A: Multiple actions needed.

1)The issue of the Israeli nuclear bomb should become the top agenda of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

2) Non-nuclear weapon states signatory to the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) should push the UN Security Council and the IAEA to take immediate and uninterrupted action to disarm Israel.

3) The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an extraordinary Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia this week. While the priority should be the disastrous situation in Gaza, however, the 2nd agenda should be about dismantling the Israeli nuclear bomb. Moreover, OIC should demand the UN General Assembly to re-establish the “UN Special Committee Against Apartheid”, which was dissolved with the end of apartheid in South Africa. The world must put an end to Israeli Apartheid.

OIC should demand the UN General Assembly to re-establish the “UN Special Committee Against Apartheid”

Q: Why are most of the countries in the West silent about Eliyahu’s incendiary remarks?

A: France helped Israel to master nuclear bomb about 60 years ago. Since then, the Western countries have practically supported Israeli nuclear bomb’s exclusivity in the Middle East. This is a hidden Western agenda to help Israel to achieve superiority in the region and to undermine the role of Muslim countries.

Q: Some analysts claim that Eliyahu's threat was in coordination with top officials in Israel and that the criticism against him or his suspension was not authentic. What do you think?

A: Coordinated or not, the fact is that the Israeli nuclear bomb is the most important proliferation threat to the Middle East and beyond.

Q: Given such an open threat of using nuclear weapons, what is the importance of a nuclear arms-free zone in the Middle East?

A: Israel’s invasion of Gaza has led to the widespread devastation of besieged Gaza, triggering a humanitarian catastrophe, killed more than 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded over 30,000 civilians, which majority of whom are children and women, created a nightmare of debris and mounting disease, with electricity, water and food scarce.

With the Gaza crisis, Israel showed that it has no limit in committing war crimes. Therefore, all countries in the region should know that Israel would use nuclear bomb whenever is in danger like the US did in Hiroshima. That’s why it is vital to have a very serious collective measures to disarm Israel.

Following a proposal initiated by Iran, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) first endorsed calls for the establishment of a NWFZ in a resolution approved in December of 1974. As part of a package of decisions that resulted in the indefinite extension of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the 1995 NPT Review Conference called for “the establishment of an effectively verifiable Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological, and their delivery systems.”

“Western countries have practically supported Israeli nuclear bomb’s exclusivity in the Middle East.”

It is time to realize both UN decisions. In my book:  “A Middle East Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction: A New Approach to Nonproliferation”, published 2 years ago, I have explained why the matter has remained unresolved, and have outlined a comprehensive yet achievable roadmap to a Middle East free of WMD.

Weapons of mass destruction pose an existential threat to global peace and security. But nowhere is it more urgent to stem their spread than in the Middle East, since Israel possesses nuclear bombs and the region is fraught with mistrust and instability and multiple crises. In this

book I have presented a practical and innovative strategy to a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The book, co-authored by Emad Kiyaei, has outlined a phased approach toward disarmament in the region, prescribing confidence-building measures and verification tools to create trust among the region’s governments.

Our vision also sees the realization of a WMD-free zone within a broader regional agenda for security and cooperation to advance socioeconomic and political progress.