Taking Aim at 'World's Hypocrisy' on Nuclear Weapons

Interactive: World nuclear club

While 14 nations host nuclear weapons, 30 countries generate atomic energy, and another 18 are building future reactors.

World powers have met in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, to expedite a nuclear deal with Iran. The West hopes an agreement will assuage Israel’s concerns by compelling Iran to curb uranium enrichment in a transparent, verifiable way.

After his recent talks in Tehran, Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, said on Tuesday that an agreement over nuclear inspections was expected "quite soon".

Iran says its nuclear programme is for entirely peaceful purposes, but Western powers have levelled sanctions against Tehran, largely out of fear that the Islamic Republic seeks to join the elite club of nations with nuclear weapons.

“Why is the news hook not the states already with nuclear weapons?” asks Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute, which advocates for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

“Why just about the state that might get nuclear weapons? We should focus on countries that have huge arsenals and get rid of them.”

“The main issue is that 189 countries have agreed to pursue a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East,” says Granoff. “Israel doesn’t want it negotiated until it gets security assurances from its neighbours. But the lack of security is in the threat posed by its [own] unsafeguarded nuclear facilities.”

“Iran is a symptom of the failure to have a universal ban on nuclear weapons,” Granoff told Al Jazeera, suggesting that the international community is not approaching the problem correctly by emphasising Iran’s alleged nuclear aspirations.

“Imagine if the Biological Weapons Convention said that no country can have polio or smallpox as weapons, but we’re going to entrust nine countries with the plague! That’s incoherent and unsustainable because we all understand that the plague is not a legitimate weapon due to its indiscriminate and horrific effects.”

View the detailed comprehensive 'Interactive' Map of Countries Who Already Have Nuclear Energy, Atomic Energy, Warheads, and Future Reactors - CLICK HERE.

After you view the "Interactive Map," you've got to ask yourself, as so with so many other people in America are questioning . . . So what's up with picking on Iran?  Hhmmmm!