SAEDNEWS: Iran has sharply denounced France at the United Nations, saying Paris is distorting facts and promoting double standards over Tehran’s nuclear program while ignoring Israel’s undeclared arsenal.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Security Council President Eloy Alfaro de Alba, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saied Iravani, rejected France’s remarks as “unwarranted, provocative, and politically motivated.”
His response came after a French representative at the August 6 meeting on the “Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction” accused Iran of worsening what it called a “proliferation crisis.”
“Such a baseless allegation is not only wholly irrelevant to the subject matter of the meeting... but also represents a deliberate distortion of facts,” Iravani wrote on Thursday.
“Iran’s nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful and fully transparent. Iran continues to honour its obligations under the NPT,” he added.
The ambassador condemned France’s selective concern. He pointed out that Paris, a nuclear-armed state and permanent member of the Security Council, has long failed to meet its own obligations under Article VI of the NPT—which requires disarmament—and has played a central role in enabling Israel’s clandestine nuclear weapons program.
“It is deeply disappointing and hypocritical that France... voices concern over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program while ignoring its own long-standing role in undermining the non-proliferation regime,” the letter stated. “France remains silent on Israel’s nuclear arsenal, and has never called for its accession to the NPT.”
There is credible historical evidence that France played a significant role in helping Israel develop its nuclear capabilities during the 1950s and early 1960s.
According to declassified US State Department records, Israel received "substantial help from the French in the nuclear field" during that era.
Academic research further reveals that France provided critical support in building Israel’s Dimona plutonium reactor, including supplying a research reactor, construction assistance, uranium fuel, and necessary financing.
The letter comes about two months after the Israeli regime launched an unprovoked aggression against Iran. The regime's military targeted Iranian peaceful nuclear sites on June 13, and nine days later, the United States joined the aggression and bombed the nuclear facilities in a flagrant violation of international law and Iran's sovereignty.
Despite the scale and significance of the attacks, the Western states, including France, and even the IAEA, refrained from condemning the strikes, raising concerns in Tehran over the agency’s impartiality and credibility.
Iravani said France's silence on the attacks was tantamount to complicity. “Such complicity not only violates international law and the UN Charter but also threatens the integrity of the global non-proliferation regime.”
Israel, which has never signed the NPT, is widely believed to possess between 200 and 400 nuclear warheads. It has maintained a policy of nuclear ambiguity for decades, refusing to allow any international inspections of its military nuclear sites.
With consistent US backing, Israel has escaped scrutiny even as it remains the only state in West Asia with a nuclear arsenal.
Iran’s envoy called on France to take a clear stance. “If France truly cares about the nuclear non-proliferation regime,” he wrote, “it must end its double standards and hypocrisy, and unequivocally demand that Israel accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty... and place its undeclared military nuclear program under the full-scope monitoring and verification of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).”
Meanwhile, France is pushing ahead with plans to extend and modernize its nuclear arsenal—despite its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). President Emmanuel Macron announced in March that the Luxeuil air base will undergo a sweeping upgrade to rejoin France’s nuclear deterrent force.
“The Luxeuil air base is about to be upgraded in an unprecedented way and regain its full role in France's nuclear deterrent,” Macron said during a visit to the site. The overhaul will require a “massive investment,” he added, to accommodate two squadrons of Rafale fighter jets equipped to carry nuclear weapons.
Under the €1.5 billion plan, the base will host F5 Rafale jets and ASN4G air-launched hypersonic nuclear missiles by 2035.
