United Nations: Asserting that nuclear-armed states have not made progress in eliminating their atomic weapons stockpiles, Iran has asked such countries to immediately cease their plans to further invest in modernising and extending the life span of their nuclear arsenal.
"The nuclear weapon states have not made progress in eliminating their nuclear weapons. The role of nuclear weapons in security policies of the nuclear weapons-states has not diminished," Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs Javad Zarif said at the 2015 NPT Review Conference here yesterday.
"Some nuclear weapons-states are modernising their nuclear arsenals and planning research on new nuclear warheads, others have announced their intention to develop new delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons," he said.
Speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Zarif said the non nuclear weapons-states parties have not yet received unequivocal and legally binding security assurances.
"The transfer of nuclear technology continues to face impediments inconsistent with the Treaty, and no progress has been made to achieve universal adherence to the Treaty in the Middle East," he said.
Iran demanded that the nuclear-weapons countries immediately cease their plans to further invest in modernising and extending the life span of their nuclear weapons and related facilities.
"We firmly believe that any use or threat of use of nuclear weapons would be a crime against humanity and a violation of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, in particular international humanitarian law," he said.
Zarif also called for the "complete exclusion" of the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons from military doctrines.
"The nuclear-weapon states shall seriously refrain, under any circumstances, from the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear-weapon states parties to the Treaty," Zarif said, adding that reductions in deployments and in operational status cannot substitute for irreversible cuts and the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
The 2015 Review Conference will run at UN Headquarters through till May 22.
The President-designate of the Conference is Ambassador Taous Feroukhi from Algeria.
The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.
The NPT represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapons states.
Zarif said pending the total elimination of nuclear weapons, it is the "legitimate right" of all non-nuclear weapons nations to receive "universal, unconditional, non-discriminatory and irrevocable" legally binding security assurances against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons under all circumstances.
"We express our dissatisfaction over the lack of required political will and efforts by the nuclear weapon states to fully address this legitimate interest," he said.
Iran also called upon all non-parties to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty to accede to the treaty, as non-nuclear weapon states, and place all their nuclear facilities under the International Atomic Energy Agency full-scope safeguards.
India has maintained that there is no question of it joining the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state, stressing at various UN platforms in the past that nuclear weapons are an integral part of its national security and will remain so, pending non-discriminatory and global nuclear disarmament.
Zarif recalled that leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, in their Tehran Summit Declaration of 2012, had reiterated their support for the establishment of a zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
The leaders had expressed "great concern" over the acquisition of nuclear capability by Israel which "poses a serious and continuing threat to the security of neighbouring and other states," Zarif said.
The non-aligned leaders had also condemned Israel for continuing to develop and stockpile nuclear arsenals and had asked for the total and complete prohibition of the transfer of all nuclear-related equipment, information, material and facilities, resources or devices and the extension of assistance in the nuclear related scientific or technological fields to Israel.
Zarif said the NAM group underscores the importance of renewed political will by all states parties to achieve a successful conclusion of the 2015 review process and stands ready to engage constructively with other partners towards this objective.
"We are of the view that the 2010 NPT action plan represents an outcome that the 2015 NPT Review Process can build upon to strengthen the implementation of the Treaty, especially in nuclear disarmament, and in achieving its universality," he said.
"We are determined to continue our collective efforts in pursuing the realisation of NAM priorities in the 2015 NPT review process, in particular to begin negotiations on a comprehensive nuclear weapons convention," he added.
