Iran seeks peaceful negotiation and a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in a statement to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
Salehi said that the majority of Middle East states, including Iran and Egypt, want to establish a nuclear weapon-free zone, but that Israel was the “only obstacle to the creation of such a zone.” Israel has hundreds of nuclear warheads, but has not officially admitted to it.
Israel has also refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as Iran has. “It is a matter of concern that all efforts to establish a nuclear free zone in the Middle East have not yet succeeded, due to its persistent refusal to join the NPT and to place its nuclear facilities under the IAEA safeguards system,” Salehi said.
Despite a consensus in its own military and intelligence community that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons and has demonstrated no intention of doing so, the U.S. has kept up harsh sanctions and aggressive postures towards Iran. Salehi claimed the West applies a double standard, letting Israel develop nuclear weapons, while heaping punitive sanctions on Iran for enriching uranium for merely civilian purposes.
Salehi also reiterated Tehran’s stated policy that possessing or even developing nuclear weapons is sinful. “Based on the religious decree issued by our supreme leader, the production, possession, use or threat of the use of nuclear weapons are illegitimate, futile, harmful, dangerous and prohibited as a great sin,” he said.
Iran’s nuclear program is legal and for civilian purposes only, Salehi said, and the international community can deal with that in one of two ways. “One way is engagement, cooperation and interaction, and the other is confrontation and conflict. The Islamic Republic of Iran, confident of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, has always insisted on the first alternative.”
Amazing! A voice of sanity amidst the gale force winds of madness.
Double standards in the Middle East, by the West, has been the primary obstacle to a just settlement for the continuing Palestinian/Israeli conflict. It has been Israel's refusal to cede meaningful territory to a new Palestinian State that is the primary reason for its hostility with Iran.
Why wont Israel sign on to the npt??? Is it because they are the satins of the mid east?
thats almost proof, I’d like to hear thare position (irregaurdless ofany renegade frakenstates/plural) on fisssion versues fusion. Uses besides a fuel of utility, specifically, can’t talk now the savage heathens are rioting again, & those crazy monarchial Canadians are forming up for another assult,,, gotta go
As long as the US continues to blindly accept whatever Israel does, Israel will never change it's arrogant and very belligerent behavior.
it does not matter what iran does or if they surrender their enrichment program completely, sanctions and threats will not stop until there is regime change and a puppet government installed which takes orders from washington and tel aviv
They had that for 25 years with the shah and SAVAK, but they want full spectrum dominance.
A zone free of all nuclear weapons but Israel's, of course.
Why is this the first time I have heard about the UN conference on disarmament? I suppose the USA and its pals boycotted it.