According to a video posted on Al Arabiya, on Saturday June 20, 2026, Tariq Rauf, the former Head of Verification and Security Policy at the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that nobody in these talks dares mention Israel’s 120 nuclear warheads sitting ready to use.
Rauf made the comment while explaining why he believes the current round of negotiations is unbalanced.
Speaking with Al Arabiya from Vienna, Rauf argued that any honest discussion about missiles and weapons in the Middle East must include all major military capabilities in the region, not just those belonging to Iran.
He said this omission weakens the credibility of the broader arms control conversation.
In his words, Tariq Rauf said, “In all of these talks, nobody has talked about the 120 nuclear warheads that Israel has ready to use. It has long-range missiles.
It has aircraft that can reach targets in Iran as we already know. So for Iran to surrender its missiles, it’s going to be very difficult unless we find a way for bringing in the Israeli capability to be able to hit Iran on the table as well,” he said.
Rauf connected this imbalance to a long-standing proposal to establish a Middle East zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, an idea that has been discussed for decades without progress.
He said that without including Israel’s capabilities in these discussions, it will be very difficult to convince Iran to give up its own missile program.
According to Rauf, this is one of the deeper structural issues that the current 60-day negotiating period is unlikely to resolve, since the agreement so far has focused mainly on Iran’s nuclear material rather than the wider regional balance of power.
His comments formed part of a broader discussion with Al Arabiya on verification, regional security arrangements, and the long road ahead for any lasting peace framework in the Middle East.
