The director general for political and international security affairs at Iran's Foreign Ministry, Gholamhossein Dehghani, made the remarks in an address to the first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Saturday.
Dehghani deemed the greatest challenge to the implementation of NPT a lack of real progress in disarmament over the past 50 years, voicing concern over the persistence of such a situation; “If no immediate action is taken to address this situation, the NPT’s credibility will be undermined,” he warned.
Dehghani maintained that too much covering up has left the world public opinion in the dark about the actual number of nuclear weapons in the world, going on to add that currently the estimated number is over 15,000.
“While the number of nuclear weapons today is 79 per cent less than that during the Cold War, their power of destruction is far greater,” he stressed.
Dehghani then slammed President Trump for his remarks about developing the US nuclear arsenal to make sure the United States is at the "top of the pack”, saying such programs are a clear invitation for an arms race and a flagrant violation of the article 6 of the NPT.
“The US needs to comply with its commitments under the JCPOA instead of accusing Iran of developing nuclear weapons and sponsoring terrorism,” he added.
MS/3971651
Your Comment