TEHRAN - Iran's ambassador and permanent representative to the international organizations based in Vienna on Friday warned about the consequences of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s silence toward the Zionist regime's nuclear program.

Kazem Gharibabadi said the silence clearly shows the double standards exercised by the international body and sends a negative message to the signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"In that case, what is the benefit of membership in the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the full implementation of the Agency's safeguards?" the outgoing diplomat said in a Twitter message.

Gharibabadi added, “How can the Agency be seen as a serious, professional and impartial body, while not pursuing its safeguards regime equally and fairly for all its members?” 

Ambassador Gharibabadi said the example of Israel shows that refusing to sign the NPT even brings “rewards”.

"Silence and negligence in the face of Israel's nuclear program sends a negative message to NPT members that ‘membership in this treaty is tantamount to accepting the strongest verification and surveillance, while staying out of it means not bearing any commitment and criticism and even receiving rewards!" he lamented.

In an interview with Energy Intelligence a few days ago, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi failed to provide a convincing answer to a question "why do you talk so much about Iran when you do not talk about Israel's nuclear program?" 

Grossi said, “Well, there is a very clear reason. Our relation with Israel is based on the one that you have with a country which is not a party to the NPT. Israel never signed the treaty. ... I'm not judging if this is good or bad. I hope they would, because I believe in the universality of this treaty, but instead they have a decision not to do that. But when you have a country that doesn't do that, the degree of inspection that we have is limited to whatever they declare. And we have a couple of places where we go and verify. In the case of Iran, Iran, like most countries in the world, is a party to the NPT, and from that legal status you will derive a number of obligations that they have. Not political gestures, but legal obligations that they have. Hence our much bigger role — not only in Iran, but in all the other 192 state parties to the NPT.”

While Israel has refused to sign the NPT, it is the fiercest opponent to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

American foreign policy expert Barbara Slavin has said according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Israel has about 90 nuclear weapons.