Iran urges intl. community to pressurize Israel to join NPT

The annual meeting of the UN Disarmament Commission kicked off on Tuesday after a three-year hiatus due to non-cooperation of the United States in issuing visas to the Russian delegation.

Finally, the Commission began its work with resolving this problem and issuance of necessary recommendations with regards to disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation as well as confidence building in line with banning arms races in outer space.

In the third plenary session of the Commission, held in presence of chairman and representatives of member states, Zahra Ershadi, deputy permanent representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations presented Iran's statement on both issues of this year's agenda.

Referring to the current geopolitical crises in the world and danger of using nuclear weapons, Iran’s envoy stressed that the recent danger is intensifying due to the arms race and modernization of nuclear arsenals in the platform of new technologies.

What the international community needs is the political will of nuclear powers to agree on a plan of action to destroy nuclear weapons within a specified timespan and in this regard, any research and development, testing, production of nuclear weapons must be stopped, she said, adding that nuclear countries should stop trying to modernize their nuclear arsenals and correct their policies and doctrines in this regard.

Referring to the two successful sessions of the annual conference entitled “Middle East Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction”, Ershadi called on the international community to put pressure on Zionist regime to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to accept International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s inspections.

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