00:00Richard, let me ask you, though, if Israel can have nuclear weapons and not declare them, why can't Iran?
00:07Here's why. And let me be very blunt on this.
00:11Iran is a bandit regime, a rogue regime, a terrorist regime.
00:15For 46 years, it directly and through proxies has threatened, has killed, has murdered, has challenged virtually everyone in the region.
00:27It is attacked directly its own neighbors.
00:31It has indeed, as Martin has said, proclaimed for decades that the annihilation of the Zionist entity, as it calls it, is its objective.
00:41It is a different matter altogether between Israel's reported possession of nuclear weapons and the threat that Iran, even now, without a weapon, but the potential to develop a weapon, poses.
00:59Richard, when I asked that question, you had a bit of a giggle. What's your take?
01:03I mean, if Israel's allowed to, why isn't Iran?
01:08Well, I think you've just had that question partially answered.
01:12Israel is not a terrorist state. It's not a dictatorship like Iran is.
01:17It's a democratic country with democratic processes.
01:21And I think the prospects, Iran has made it very clear, it intends to annihilate the Zionist state.
01:29And it's done, it created this network of proxies around the region to do exactly that.
01:35We have no reason to believe that a nuclear-armed Iran would not carry out its threats.
01:40Israel has made no such threats against anybody.
01:43And I think you can illustrate, I think the kind of, the rationale can be illustrated to an extent by the fact that Israel has allegedly, and I don't think they've admitted to it,
01:54but Israel has allegedly had a nuclear weapons capability for many decades now, Iran is getting closer, has been getting closer to nuclear program for a long time.
02:05And no, to my knowledge, no country in the region, with the exception of Iran, has sought nuclear weapons out of fear of Israel's nuclear program.
02:15But there are a number of countries in the region, not least Saudi Arabia, which has been actively looking towards acquiring its own nuclear capability if Iran gains its one.
02:25So, it really, I think that shows what the, certainly the view in the region is of Israel's nuclear weapons program, or potential, alleged nuclear weapons program.
02:35And it shows the fear of Iran gaining nuclear weapons.
