IT sounds quite strange that Washington and Tel Aviv should have come out with strong criticism of Iran for its test-firing of missiles on Wednesday, when they themselves never tire of hurling threats of attacking it militarily, and Israel has only recently conducted extensive war games in the Mediterranean to demonstrate the awesome might of its armed forces, intended to browbeat Iran. No doubt, the new version of Shahab-3, among the battery of nine missiles it tested, could reach Israel with its range of 2000 km, but the Zionist entity, whose own arsenal could cause massive destruction, should not be forgetting that a state's primary responsibility is to defend its sovereignty. Tehran has been persistently denounced by the Western world, led by the US, Israel and their allies, on the assumption that its programme of uranium enrichment is designed ultimately to make it a nuclear power. Disputing the charge, Iran insists that it only wants to enrich low-grade uranium to become independent of foreign sources for the supply of fuel to its nuclear power projects, and that it has an indisputable right to do so under the NPT. The real fear of the US stems from Iran's growing influence in the region that would pose a challenge to Israel. The sooner it gets over this and reconciles with the emerging reality, the better for peace in the region and, indeed, the world. It should give up thoughts of attack and rein in Tel Aviv too. For the nuclear scare, if the US believes it to be real, it would have to reflect on its policy of double standards that allows Israel with its huge stockpile of weapons to go scot-free, run riot and cause death and destruction of opponents, and its own continuing moves to make its arsenal more sophisticated.