ALBAWABA - President Donald Trump of the United States said that his government was able to stop a "potential nuclear disaster" in Iran after a U.S. military operation targeted Iranian nuclear facilities.
Tehran, on the other hand, called out Western powers for being hypocritical for not speaking out against Israel's growing nuclear program. They said their stance on nuclear non-proliferation was "lacking credibility."
Trump said that the U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear sites was carried out through what he called "one of the greatest military operations ever conducted."
Following the American attack, Al Jazeera showed satellite images of the Isfahan nuclear facility in Iran that showed a lot of damage.
Iran Criticizes Western "Double Standards"
Abbas Araghchi, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, said that the US, UK, France, and Germany were losing credibility by not paying attention to Israel's nuclear weapons while worrying about Iran's nuclear program.
Araghchi wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) account that Western fears about nuclear proliferation in the region are "nonsense" and that the real issue for the West is "who has the right to advance scientifically, even within peaceful nuclear programs."
Israel's Hidden Nuclear Growth
Tehran's criticism comes after the Associated Press published satellite images showing that construction at Israel's Dimona nuclear facility has sped up.
According to seven nuclear experts who spoke with AP, Israel might be building a new heavy-water reactor or a place to put together weapons. Three of them came to the conclusion that the most likely outcome is a new multi-level heavy-water reactor that can make plutonium and other important nuclear weapons materials.
Israel has kept the Dimona site a secret for a long time, but leaks in the 1980s showed that it was used to make dozens of nuclear warheads.
Israel's nuclear weapons and NPT status
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (2022) says that Israel probably has about 90 nuclear warheads.
Israel is one of nine countries that are thought to have nuclear weapons, but it is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), so the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) cannot inspect Dimona.
