Iran denounces US cancellation of Middle East nuclear meeting

“The Middle East is faced with serious instability and insecurity as a result of Israel’s nuclear weapons and repeated violation of the international law and the resolutions of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by this regime,” Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh said in a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors on Friday.

In fact, he added, the Zionist way of thinking that is based on occupation is a threat to peace and security in the Middle East and across the globe.

In a unilateral move, the US has announced that the conference, originally scheduled to be held in Finland’s capital, Helsinki, in December, cannot be convened at this point and that it should be postponed.

The major event has reportedly been cancelled on US worries that its long-time ally in the region, the Israeli regime, would come under fire as the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

Israel is widely known to possess between 200 and 400 nuclear warheads.

The US has taken the Helsinki conference hostage for the sake of Tel Aviv, Soltanieh said.

This is a clear indication that the Zionist lobby has a strong influence on American decision-makers, which not only damages the US government’s prestige, but forces Washington to confront all countries in the Middle East and all signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The Iranian diplomat noted that all regional countries, including the Islamic Republic, have expressed their readiness to have an active participation in the Helsinki conference, adding that all the signatories to the NPT, including the European Union member states, the close allies of the US, have backed the event.

The Israeli regime rejects all the regulatory international nuclear agreements - the NPT in particular - and refuses to allow its nuclear facilities to come under international regulatory inspections.
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