Hans Blix says it’s the “contemptuous tone” and “neocolonialist attitude” of the United States that causes terrorism: Former weapons inspector decries U.S. tone against Iran.

And humiliating Iran causes them to want nuclear weapons.

TORONTO - The contemptuous tone of United States admonishments to Iran over its nuclear ambitions is but one source of the humiliation, alienation and rage that propels disaffected Muslim youth to espouse fanaticism, Hans Blix said Monday.

Speaking to the National Post after his speech to mark the opening of the International Law Association conference in Toronto, the former diplomat, United Nations weapons inspector and champion of nuclear disarmament touched briefly on the wave of arrests that swept southern Ontario over the weekend.

“To me, as a foreigner passing through here, I would fit it in to the larger picture of the Muslim world much of which feels humiliated and infuriated by the non-Muslim world’s attitude towards it,” Blix said, speculating about the possible motivations of 17 young men, mostly raised in Canada, to allegedly contemplate launching homegrown terror attacks.

In his view, the majority of Muslims in Canada, abroad or in the Middle East, do not support Iran’s drive to enrich uranium, which the international community fears one day could fuel a nuclear weapons program, but he said that the silent majority are often reluctant to raise their voices in opposition when assailed by tough talk that borders on insulting.

For a destructive handful, inflammatory rhetoric becomes a call to arms.

“If you talk about Iran ‘behaving itself’ or being a ‘troublemaker’ that is sort of a neocolonialist attitude toward a group of states of majority Muslim faith,” said Blix. “How we behave vis-a-vis Iran is important. Iran is a proud nation.”