“We have always announced nuclear disarmament as one of our most important priorities while emphasizing the right of all signatories to the NPT [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons] to use peaceful nuclear energy,” Khazaei said on Thursday in an address to an extraordinary meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at the UN premises to discuss the movement’s positions in the NPT Review Conference.
He added that NAM member states call for the disarmament of all countries possessing nuclear weapons.
The Iranian envoy stated that the next changes in the NPT should be made with the purpose of strengthening its signatories’ commitment to the nuclear disarmament free from dual and discriminatory standards.
He emphasized that such changes should not turn into a new obstacle in the way of the NPT signatories’ access to the nuclear technology.
Iran believes that any selective reinterpretation of the countries’ rights and commitments would bear no result and that a review of the NPT should be carried out effectively and transparently, Khazaei said.
He reaffirmed NAM’s support for the establishment of a Middle East region free of nuclear weapons.
Iran has repeatedly expressed its strong opposition to any production, possession or use of nuclear weapons, saying such arms have no place in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear doctrine.
On February 22, 2012, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said Iran considers the pursuit and possession of nuclear weapons “a grave sin” from every logical, religious and theoretical standpoint.
Israel, the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, is widely known to have between 200 and 400 nuclear warheads.
The Israeli regime rejects all the regulatory international nuclear agreements, particularly the NPT, and refuses to allow its nuclear facilities to come under international regulatory inspections.
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