Iran calls for total elimination of nuclear weapons

New York, (ST) –Reza Najafi, the Acting Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs of Iran, announced that his country strongly rejects the storing, developing, using and proliferating of nuclear weapons at regional and global levels. He called for disarmament such weapons at global levels.

Najafi said in a speech during the United Nations General Assembly meeting on the occasion of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear-Weapons that, achieving global nuclear disarmament and removing the threat of the use of these weapons is a legal, political and moral responsibility of all governments in general.

 He considered that, nuclear power programs that aim to modernize and strengthen their nuclear arsenals represent a flagrant violation of the spirit and letter of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

“Achieving global nuclear disarmament and eliminating the threat of nuclear weapons is a legal, political and moral responsibility for all States, in general, and the Nuclear Weapon States, in particular,” Najafi said.

He criticized the nuclear weapon states for still relying on nuclear deterrence and planning to “not only modernize but also strengthen their nuclear arsenals, which is a gross violation of the spirit and letter of the NPT.”

The official blamed the deadlock on nuclear disarmament on Washington’s aggressive nuclear policy and urged the US and other nuclear-weapon states to fulfill “their international obligations on nuclear disarmament and implement them earnestly”.

Iran emphasizes the fundamental importance of the implementation of the 1995 Resolution, he said, adding that the nuclear weapons of the Israeli regime continue to threaten the peace and security of the Middle East region and beyond.

Najafi called on the international community to reaffirm the importance of accession of the Israeli regime to the NPT as a non-nuclear-weapon party and without any precondition and the placement of all of its nuclear facilities under the IAEA’s full-scope safeguards.

Raghda Sawas