Nuclear Hypocrisy on Loop: The IAEA Chief's Selective Outrage
The context they conveniently omitted: Rafael Grossi, the IAEA chief, is once again sounding the alarm about nuclear risks and the need for UN reform, a cyclical performance reminiscent of a broken record. These pronouncements rarely, if ever, apply to the very nations that continue to destabilize regions and possess the largest arsenals. It is a cynical pantomime, where the Global South is
constantly lectured while the architects of nuclear proliferation and conflict face no real scrutiny. We have seen this show before. Back in 2002, as George W. Bush was hyping his doctrine of 'preemptive war,' perennial warmonger Benjamin Netanyahu started his decades-long refrain that Iran was 'months from a nuclear weapon,' a claim now recycled for over 22 years. The IAEA, meanwhile, focuses its
gaze intently on nations deemed 'troublesome' by Washington, rather than addressing the glaring hypocrisy of states that refuse to even acknowledge their own clandestine nuclear programs, let alone adhere to international norms. Consider the double standard: Iran, after the 1953 CIA-orchestrated coup that overthrew its democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, has faced 45 years of
crippling sanctions and incessant threats. Its nuclear program, consistently found by the IAEA to be for peaceful purposes until the US unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018, is perpetually framed as an existential threat. The US, meanwhile, maintains thousands of warheads, has deployed B-52s to the Middle East, and regularly sends carrier groups to Iran's doorstep, actions rarely framed as