Israel Is the Biggest Obstacle to Creating a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone in the Middle East: Tehran
TEHRAN, (ST)- Iran’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based International Organizations Kazem Gharibabadi has stressed that Israel is the biggest obstacle in the path of creating a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East, reiterating that Israel should abandon all its nuclear weapons and join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) without any delay or precondition and subject all its nuclear facilities to all IAEA safeguards.
In a speech at the 63rd General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Gharibabadi said that the creation of a Middle East Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone has been the demand of many countries in the region for a long time, noting that since 1980, several resolutions were issued in this regard, but were not put to voting.
The Iranian envoy, went on to say that the commitment of the international community to the nuclear disarmament agreement and the implementation of the safeguards agreements, particularly in the Middle East, contributes effectively to the establishment of the hoped for nuclear weapon-zone.
He pointed out that Israel has been keen on diverting the world attention from its brutal and inhuman behavior against the Palestinian people and other countries in the region, affirming that the Israeli entity has been one of the main cause of crises, instability and suffering in the region.
Hamda Mustafa