Your trusted source

Press TV has conducted an interview with George Galloway, a member of the British parliament, in London about the recent initiative by British lawmakers demanding that Israel come clean on its nuclear weapons program.

- I believe you were one of the MPs who raised the issue of Israel’s weapons and the concerns about them. What kind of response did you and those who were making similar calls get?

- As always there is a double standard employed. The whole regime of sanctions, which have caused so much pain in Iran, were imposed because of the fear that Iran might one day make a nuclear weapon.

Israel, as you’ve just said, has hundreds of nuclear weapons. Not only is it not sanctioned, it is endlessly rewarded with more arms and more money and more diplomatic and political support.

So although the British government has improved on its attitude towards the Islamic Republic, we are still some way off from forcing the British government to move on this relationship with the Zionist state.

- A lot of people were suggesting that this nuclear deal now between Iran and the six powers is going to bring Israel’s nuclear weapons program to the fore now and make it more visible that it is the party that hasn’t signed the NPT; it is the only entity with nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

Do you think these issues are going to come up now with concerns about Iran’s nuclear energy program being allayed?

- I do think so. Some of us have been making this point for more than 30 years since Mordecai Vanunu told us about Israel’s’ nuclear weapons - he, having worked in the nuclear weapons plant at Dimona in the Negev in occupied Palestine.

But you are right. Now that there has been all this hullabaloo about Iran nuclear questions, it unveils all over again the grotesque truth that the country, which talks most about Iran’s nuclear question, is the country which is illegally holding hundreds of nuclear weapons, which have never been inspected, which are subject to no treaty.

And Israel refuses even to confirm that which we all know to be true that it is a nuclear weapons power. So the demand will grow for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East and that requires the destruction of Israel’s nuclear weapons armory.

- How big of a threat do you see Israel’s nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons program because some people who are supporting Israel’s position are saying Israel shouldn’t be seen as a nuclear threat in the region and it hasn’t threatened anyone with the use of nuclear weapons?

- It hasn’t threatened anyone with the use of nuclear weapons because it lies about the fact that it has them. But its military power is underpinned by this nuclear weapons status.

However, I must tell you that nuclear weapons are useless against a people who refuse to be intimidated by them. If the Iranian people had been frightened or intimidated by Israel’s nuclear weapons, they would have surrendered all their rights. But they have refused to surrender their rights because they are not afraid of Israel however many nuclear weapons she has.

So, nuclear weapons are the nearest thing to a complete waste of money that is possible to imagine because you can never use them. If Israel were to use them for example against an Arab country or against Iran, God forbid of course, the winds would blow and people in all the surrounding countries would be affected for centuries to come.

So, you can’t use these weapons and all they are is an intimidator and bullying threat.

But if people like the Palestinians - and the Iranians for that matter - refuse to be intimidated; refuse to be bullied, well, these weapons are next to useless.