‘UK, Israel to work together to stop Iran gaining nuclear weapons’

“The clock is ticking, which heightens the need for close cooperation with our partners and friends to thwart Tehran’s ambitions,” the UK’s Liz Truss and her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid wrote in the Telegraph newspaper on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stated earlier in the day that his country was “very worried” that world powers will remove sanctions on Iran in exchange for insufficient caps on its nuclear programme, as negotiators convene in Vienna on Monday in a last-ditch effort to salvage a nuclear deal.

Iranian officials have stressed the country “has not been and is not after nuclear weapons” and the nation will keep on paving the path of peaceful nuclear energy and technology. Tehran has also called on the world for the total elimination of nuclear weapons throughout the world.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei has on many occasions stated the Islamic Republic considers the pursuit and possession of nuclear weapons “a grave sin” from every logical, religious and theoretical standpoint. In April 2010, Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa declaring that the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are all haram (religiously banned).

Israel is the only holder of nuclear weapons in the West Asian region, and that regime has so far refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Iran, however, is a signatory to the NPT, and Iran’s nuclear program is closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors.