The envoy to the United Nations denounced Israel as the only hindrance to efforts aimed at creating a region free from nuclear weapons, urging action by the international community to compel the regime to abandon such arms.
"Israel continues to be the only impediment in way toward realizing a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East. Israel continues to block all international and regional efforts to fulfill this goal," Gholamali Khoshroo said, citing Tel Aviv's latest move to prevent convention of a conference on the issue, which was "mandated by the 2010 NPT [nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] Review Conference under the United Nations auspices."
Double standards should be dropped and Israel must be dispossessed of its nuclear weapons, he reiterated in his speech before the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.
"We have consistently urged that the non-proliferation norm should be applied globally and without exception. Nuclear proliferation is as dangerous in the Middle East as it is in other parts of the world. The application of double standards has to be abandoned."
"The existence of nuclear weapons in the hands of the Israeli regime is obviously the result of the application of double standards by certain nuclear weapon states and their failing to abide by the very non-proliferation norm that they helped set and are legally committed to comply with and invariably enforce," the diplomat said.
***Need for Effective Action
He called on the international community to get more actively involved in efforts to help advance the cause of a world free of nuclear weapons, IRNA reported.
"While the mere reaffirmation by the nuclear weapon states of their commitment to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons is welcome, but it is obviously quite insufficient and does not equate to compliance with their nuclear disarmament obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty."
Khoshroo warned of the grave consequences of "persistent" lack of true commitment to nuclear disarmament among some countries, saying, "The wider the gap between the nominal commitment to nuclear disarmament and the implementation thereof, the greater the danger of the unraveling of the progress achieved and the possibility of the ultimate defeat of the purposes of the treaty."
***Time to Reengage
Pointing to the 2015 NPT Review Conference which failed to produce a final declaration due to opposition by the US, Britain and Canada in support of Israel, he said, "We should not let the disappointing conclusion of the [conference] prevent us from moving forward on nuclear disarmament front. Now it is not a time for recrimination, but a time to reengage positively and together in an open and inclusive process, within the General Assembly, to identify and elaborate effective measures on nuclear disarmament."
To promote this, the Iranian mission will soon present a draft resolution, the envoy said.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to engage actively in all international diplomatic and legal efforts to save humanity from the menace of nuclear weapons and their proliferation, including through the establishment of nuclear weapons free zones, particularly in the Middle East," Khoshroo added.
