Iran’s Envoy to UN Slams US for Breaching NPT
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations criticized the US for breaching the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and refusing to come under a comprehensive nuclear arms control regime, saying such irresponsible policies are detrimental to all international peace-making efforts.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, Majid Takht-e Ravanchi cited the latest Nuclear Proliferation Report (NPR), which has found that the United States is disinclined to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
The report also outlines how the US “will resume nuclear explosive testing, … including underground nuclear explosive,” the envoy added.
“This policy is in gross violation of its (the US’) explicit legal obligations under the NPT,” he noted.
“Such irresponsible policies, the latest of which is the US withdrawal from the INF Treaty, are detrimental to all international efforts towards nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and therefore must come to an end,” the ambassador asserted.
The US scrapped the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty with Russia last month. Later, the Pentagon announced that it had tested a type of a ground-launched missile that was banned under the deal.
The Iranian official also reminded that Israel, which has the US as its primary and strongest supporter, maintains nuclear weapons that continue to threaten peace and security in the region and beyond.
Copious volumes of evidence have identified the occupying regime as the sole possessor of the non-conventional weapons in the region. Those include The Sunday Times’ historic report of 1986 that first broke the story on tip-off from former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, and former US president Jimmy Carter’s similarly head-turning revelation that the occupying regime was in possession of hundreds of nuclear warheads.
Takht-e Ravanchi further said, “Total elimination of these inhumane weapons is what we owe to ourselves, to our children, to generations to come and to entire humanity,” adding, “Iran stands ready to play its role in pursuing this noble objective."
