How can the United States credibly demand Iran abandon its nuclear ambitions while unconditionally backing a nuclear-armed Israel that has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty? On this episode of the Kianistan Podcast, host Tafhim Kiani welcomes back Professor Steven Zunes, a professor of politics and international studies, for a returning conversation focused on the Israel-Iran war and the deep contradictions embedded in decades of US Middle East policy.

A recurring guest on the show, Professor Zunes brings his long record of scholarship on nonviolent movements, US foreign policy, and Middle East politics to bear on a conflict he argues cannot be understood without confronting the double standards that have shaped Washington’s approach to the region for decades. The conversation moves from the immediate dynamics of the Israel-Iran war into a broader critique of US policy, international law, and the selective application of nonproliferation norms.

Zunes offers a historically grounded, unflinching assessment of how successive US administrations have treated Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal as a non-issue while treating Iran’s civilian and potentially dual-use nuclear program as an existential threat justifying military action. He argues this asymmetry is not incidental but structural, reflecting deeper patterns in how Washington selectively applies international law and nonproliferation standards depending on the political alignment of the state in question.

The episode also examines the human cost of the conflict and the broader question of what genuine, consistent adherence to international law and nonproliferation principles would actually require of US policy in the region, a standard Zunes argues the United States has rarely, if ever, met.

Key Topics Discussed

The Israel-Iran War in Context

Professor Zunes offers his assessment of the current conflict, situating it within decades of prior confrontation and near-confrontation between Israel and Iran.

• The immediate triggers and objectives behind Israel’s attack on Iran
• How this conflict fits within the longer history of Israeli-Iranian hostility
• US involvement and support during the opening phase of the war
• The humanitarian and civilian cost of the fighting

The US Nuclear Double Standard

A central theme of the conversation is the glaring asymmetry between how the US treats Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal and Iran’s nuclear program.

• Israel’s longstanding policy of nuclear ambiguity and its undeclared arsenal
• Why Israel has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty without consequence
• How US policy treats Iran’s nuclear program as uniquely threatening
• The strategic and political roots of this double standard

International Law and Selective Enforcement

Zunes examines how international law is applied inconsistently in the region, with Israel frequently exempted from standards rigorously applied elsewhere.

• UN resolutions concerning Israel that have gone unenforced for decades
• How US vetoes at the Security Council shape the enforcement gap
• Comparisons with how international law is applied to other states
• The long-term costs of eroding the credibility of international legal norms

US Domestic Politics and Middle East Policy

The conversation explores how domestic political dynamics in Washington shape and constrain US policy toward Israel and Iran.

• The influence of pro-Israel lobbying and bipartisan political consensus
• How election cycles affect the willingness to challenge existing policy
• The gap between shifting public opinion and entrenched elite consensus
• Why meaningful policy change has proven so difficult to achieve

Regional Consequences of the Conflict

Zunes assesses how the Israel-Iran war is affecting the broader region, from neighboring states to the global nonproliferation regime.

• How Gulf states are positioning themselves amid the conflict
• The risk of the war accelerating regional nuclear proliferation
• Effects on ongoing diplomatic processes in the wider Middle East
• The precedent set for future preventive military action

Pathways Toward a More Consistent Policy

The episode closes with Zunes’s assessment of what a genuinely consistent, law-based US approach to nuclear nonproliferation in the region would require.

• What consistent application of nonproliferation norms would look like
• The role of civil society and nonviolent movements in shifting policy
• Realistic near-term versus long-term prospects for policy change
• Why Zunes remains cautiously engaged despite decades of limited progress

Major Takeaways

• The US has long treated Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal as a non-issue while framing Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat justifying military action.
• This double standard is structural, rooted in decades of political alignment rather than a consistent application of nonproliferation principles.
• Selective enforcement of international law and UN resolutions has eroded the credibility of those norms across the region.
• US domestic political dynamics, including lobbying influence and bipartisan consensus, significantly constrain policy flexibility on Israel and Iran.
• The Israel-Iran war carries real risks of accelerating nuclear proliferation among other regional states.
• Genuine policy consistency would require applying the same nonproliferation and legal standards to all states in the region, a standard the US has rarely met.

About Professor Steven Zunes

Steven Zunes is a professor of politics and international studies whose research and writing focus on US foreign policy, the Middle East, and the study of nonviolent civil resistance movements. A recurring guest on the Kianistan Podcast, he is widely published on the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, US intervention abroad, and international law.

• US foreign policy in the Middle East
• Nuclear nonproliferation and international law
• The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Nonviolent civil resistance movements

About Kianistan Podcast

Kianistan Podcast is hosted by Tafhim Kiani and dedicated to unpacking the geopolitics of the Middle East, South Asia, and the broader international order through long-form conversations with scholars, journalists, and former practitioners. The show’s guiding philosophy is that most conflicts cannot be understood in isolation from the decades of policy, history, and institutional interest that preceded them, so episodes are built to give guests the time to actually explain, rather than summarize.

Listeners come to the show for perspectives that push back against simplified media narratives, whether that means a fresh look at long-running double standards in US foreign policy or a granular breakdown of a fast-moving regional crisis. Kianistan Podcast has become a go-to resource for anyone who wants their geopolitics served with historical depth rather than soundbites.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Israel have nuclear weapons?

Israel is widely understood to possess nuclear weapons, though it maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity and has never officially confirmed or signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, a status Professor Zunes argues the US has effectively shielded from scrutiny.

Why does the US treat Iran’s nuclear program differently than Israel’s?

Zunes attributes this to decades of strategic alignment and domestic political consensus that treats Israel as a trusted ally exempt from the scrutiny applied to Iran, rather than any consistent application of nonproliferation principles.

What role does international law play in the Israel-Iran conflict?

International law and UN resolutions have frequently gone unenforced regarding Israel due to US vetoes and diplomatic protection, which Zunes argues undermines the broader credibility of international legal norms in the region.

Could the Israel-Iran war lead to more nuclear proliferation in the region?

Professor Zunes warns that the conflict carries real risks of prompting other regional states to reconsider their own nuclear postures, potentially accelerating proliferation rather than containing it.

Conclusion

Professor Steven Zunes’s conversation on the Kianistan Podcast offers listeners a rigorous, historically grounded critique of the double standards embedded in US Middle East policy. Rather than treating the Israel-Iran war as an isolated event, he situates it within decades of selective enforcement of international law and nonproliferation norms that have shaped the region’s trajectory.

This episode is essential listening for anyone seeking to understand not just the immediate dynamics of the conflict, but the deeper structural inconsistencies in US policy that Zunes argues have made lasting peace and genuine nonproliferation in the Middle East so difficult to achieve.

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