Abbas Araqchi said on Saturday that Israel’s refusal to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other treaties such as the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is the main obstacle to establishing a Middle East free of atomic weapons and other kinds of WMD.
The deputy minister for legal and international affairs made the remarks in a meeting in Tehran with Finland’s Undersecretary of State Jaakko Laajava, who is also in charge of facilitating preparations for a conference on turning the Middle East into a WMD-free zone.
The conference was scheduled to be held in Finland’s capital, Helsinki, in December 2012 upon an agreement reached during the 2010 NPT Review Conference.
However, the US called off the event due to Washington’s worries that its long-time ally in the region, Israel, would come under fire as the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.
“Realizing this idea (a WMD-free Mideast) is a strategic objective for the Islamic Republic and other Middle Eastern countries,” Araqchi said.
The Iranian official stressed the importance of convening the conference within the framework of the UN.
The Israeli regime reportedly maintains between 200 and 400 atomic warheads, but under its policy of so-called nuclear opacity, it has never denied nor confirmed its possession of the weapons of mass destruction.
Furthermore, Tel Aviv has never allowed any inspection of its nuclear facilities and continues to defy international calls to join the NPT.
