Int'l community should oblige Israel to join NPT: Deputy FM

Gharibabadi made remarks on Thursday at the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the topic "To Promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons".

The full text of Gharibabadi's speech at the UN meeting is as follows:

In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Mr. President,

My delegation aligns itself with the statement delivered by Uganda on behalf of the NAM.

Seventy-five years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—the first and only instance of such horrific weapons being used—this meeting offers a unique opportunity to mobilize global efforts toward achieving nuclear disarmament as the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations, even in the absence of some nuclear weapon states.

Fifty-four years after Article VI of the NPT mandated nuclear disarmament, and twenty-eight years after the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion decisively clarified that the NPT requires nuclear-weapon states to eliminate their arsenals, these states intend to rely on large, modernized nuclear forces as a central component of their security postures for decades to come.

Based on past performance and present plans, nuclear-weapon states appear to treat the disarmament directive of Article VI as merely a feel-good suggestion. As in all NPT meetings, the negotiations for the Pact for the Future revealed a significant effort by all nuclear-armed states to undermine the nuclear disarmament section of the Pact, leading to a text that represents a regression from the current obligations and commitments of nuclear-weapon states.

Nuclear-weapon states, particularly those within NATO, present extensive rhetoric about their commitment to nuclear disarmament as a future goal, while making firm demands on the rest of the world for immediate commitments to nuclear non-proliferation. These states, which already perpetuate an unequal world order of nuclear haves and have-nots and increasingly apply NPT rules in a discriminatory manner, have adopted policies on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation that serve their own narrow interests, ultimately undermining common security. Today, more than 40 countries, including NATO members rely on the extended nuclear deterrence provided by the United States. Five NATO states host US nuclear weapons under "nuclear sharing" arrangements, exemplifying proliferation and bypassing NPT obligations.

Iran deeply shares the frustration of non-nuclear-weapon states regarding the troubling situation of maintaining the status quo and the lack of real progress on nuclear disarmament. Offering some reductions in arsenals as evidence of intent to move toward eventual disarmament, while simultaneously investing heavily in both qualitative and quantitative improvements and developing new types of nuclear arms, is a deviation from genuine disarmament.

Mr. President,

The Israeli regime, the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in our region, with the backing of the United States, has consistently opposed all initiatives, including Iran’s proposal since 1974, to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. To prove a genuine will for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, the international community has to compel Israel—an outlaw regime that has openly threatened others with nuclear annihilation while falsely accusing others of proliferation—to renounce its nuclear weapons, join the NPT as a non-nuclear-weapon party, and subject all its nuclear facilities and activities to comprehensive IAEA safeguards, given its six decades of deception and clandestine nuclear weapons development. 

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