Addressing the 7th Plenary Session of the APA in Pakistan’s Lahore on Tuesday, Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard pointed to increased insecurity in the world after the establishment of the Zionist regime of Israel, and said, “The formation of the Zionist regime in a corner of the world was equal to the creation of insecurity and cultural and political challenges and was the start the spread of terrorism, extremism and violence in the world.”
Israel is widely understood to possess nuclear weapons but declines to confirm or deny it under the policy of nuclear ambiguity. It has refused to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and been the only obstacle in the way of realization of a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East.
Most experts estimate that Israel has between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads, largely based on information leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper in the 1980s by Mordechai Vanunu, a former worker at the country's Dimona nuclear reactor.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian parliamentarian also described the formation of the Asian Parliament as the APA’s main mission.
Aboutorabi-Fard also thanked the Pakistani nation and government for hosting the APA meeting.
The APA was established in 2006 at the Seventh Session of the Association of Asian Parliamentary for Peace (AAPP).
In other words, the APA is continuation of an organization which was established in 1999. In 2007, the APA was comprised of 41 Member Parliaments and 17 observers.