New Delhi: A member of Iran’s National Security Council, Monday, claimed that Pakistan would launch a nuclear attack on Israel if it hit Iran with a nuclear bomb, even as Tehran and Tel Aviv continued to trade missiles for a fourth day in the latest escalation in the Middle East.
However, just hours later, Pakistan’s Defence Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, appeared to deny this. In a post on X, without directly addressing the claim, he emphasised that the country was a signatory to all “international nuclear disciplines” and that its nuclear capabilities were to “benefit of our people and defence of our country against hostile designs of our enemies”.
“We do not pursue hegemonic policies against our neighbours, which are being amply demonstrated by Israel these days,” he said. The post was not visible in India, with the government having blocked a number of Pakistani accounts amid the conflict last month.
Earlier, General Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told an Iranian state TV channel, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, “Pakistan has assured us that if Israel uses a nuclear bomb on Iran, they will respond with a nuclear attack on Israel.”
The development came as a fresh confrontation between Tehran and Tel Aviv, which began with Israeli strikes on key nuclear facilities and military personnel in Iran, entered its fourth day. This was even as Iran and the US were in the midst of negotiating a new deal over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Pakistan backed Iran following the Israeli strikes, with Asif, in a fiery speech before Pakistan’s National Assembly on 14 June, calling for Islamic unity against Israel, warning that other Muslim nations risk suffering the same fate as Iran, Yemen, and Palestine if they fail to respond.
He further called on nations with diplomatic ties to Israel to sever them, urging the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to convene a summit and adopt a unified strategy.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan does not recognise the state of Israel. In the post Monday, Asif further said, “World should be wary and apprehensive about Israel’s nuclear prowess, a country not bound by any international nuclear discipline, not signatory to NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] or any other binding arrangement.”
“Western world must worry about conflicts being generated by Israel, it will engulf the whole region and beyond, their patronage of Israel, a rogue state, can have catastrophic consequences.”
While Israel continues to maintain a policy of nuclear ambiguity, refusing to confirm or deny the existence of a nuclear arsenal, it is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, developed under a longstanding doctrine of deterrence and preemptive counter-proliferation. The country is also not a party to the NPT.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Western powers have long expressed concern over Tehran’s uranium enrichment activities and its ballistic missile development. In 2018, Trump, in his first term, walked out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which limited Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
Since then, the IAEA has alleged that Iran has been enriching its uranium beyond civilian use, towards weapons-grade levels. While Iran has maintained that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, focused on energy and medicine, on Monday, reports said it was considering leaving the NPT, which it had ratified in 1970.
Since Israel struck Friday, part of its Operation Rising Lion, the two countries have exchanged dozens of drones and missiles. As a result of these attacks, at least 13 deaths and over 370 injuries have been reported in Israel, while at least 128 people have died and nearly 900 have been wounded in Iran.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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