As the step-by-step approach to eliminating nuclear weapons pursued so far by the international community has proved inefficient, it is time to turn to a more comprehensive approach, the foreign minister said.
Addressing the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement on Wednesday, days after the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on Sept. 26, Mohammad Javad Zarif said, “The international community has waited too long for the realization of the goal of the total elimination of nuclear weapons.”
“The limitations of the step-by-step approach are more apparent than before, and there is urgent need for the international community to make concrete and systematic progress towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons…. It is time to take a new and comprehensive approach on nuclear disarmament.”
Iran holds the rotating presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement.
He expressed profound concern over the “continued existence” of nuclear arms and lamented failure by some nuclear-weapon states to fulfill their multilateral legal obligations on nuclear disarmament.
“We regret that instead of complying with this long overdue legal obligation to pursue nuclear disarmament, the military doctrines of some nuclear-weapon states continue to provide for modernization of nuclear weapons, which violates their legal obligations and should therefore be stopped.”
UNSC Should Be Restructured
Elsewhere, speaking at a meeting to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the UN in New York on Thursday, the top diplomat urged reforms in the structure of the UN Security Council, as well as the expansion of the council in such a way as to facilitate the presence of developing countries.
Zarif pointed to cases where the UNSC has failed to fully meet its obligations to confront genocide, crime against humanity, war crimes and the violation of ceasefires between warring sides, saying it now falls on the General Assembly to deal with such cases.
“In such instances where the Security Council has not fulfilled its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the General Assembly should take appropriate measures in accordance with the [UN] Charter to address the issue.”
