Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said the US opposition to the Middle East nuclear free conference indicates its double standards and dual-track approach to nuclear disarmament and establishment of peace and tranquility across the world.

He made the remarks after the US, in a unilateral move, announced that the Middle East nuclear free conference due to be hosted in Finland's capital, Helsinki, in December should be postponed.

"The US measure (postponing the conference) shows its untrue claims, contradictory behavior and implementation of double standards on nuclear disarmament and establishment of international peace and security," Mehman-Parast said on Tuesday.

He further said the US seeks to prevent isolation of the "illegitimate Zionist regime" through postponing the conference.

The spokesman underlined that Israel is the only obstacle to creation of a Middle East free from nuclear arms.

Also Iran's Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh on Monday slammed the US for defying its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and cancelling the conference.

Soltaniyeh told Press TV that postponing the conference sends the signal that the United States does not abide by its commitment to a world free from nuclear weapons and continues backing the nuclear weapon capability of Israel.

He also said the US measure openly violates rules and regulations of the NPT and the nuclear treaty mandate, which was ratified unanimously during the NPT Review Conference held in New York in 2010.

Iranian officials have frequently lashed at the US for refraining from its commitment to the NPT content, and called it violator of the treaty.

The second international conference on nuclear disarmament held in Tehran in 2011 blasted the United States as the main violator of the Non-Proliferation Treaty rules and regulations.

During the conference, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi called the US "the biggest violator of the NPT".
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News ID 183486