Ambassador Es’haq Ale-Habib made the remarks in a speech during an informal meeting of the General Assembly in New York on Thursday held to mark the observance of the International Day against Nuclear Tests, which is commemorated on August 29 every year.
During the meeting, Ambassador Susan F. Burk, the special representative of U.S. President Barack Obama for nuclear non-proliferation, accused Iran of refusing to “comply with its international nuclear non-proliferation obligations.”
The U.S. ambassador also said, “Iran’s actions pose a grave challenge to the authority and future of the NPT and IAEA safeguards.”
Following is the text of Ale-Habib’s speech:
Mr. President,
Allow me to begin by thanking you for convening this meeting.
I would also like to join other delegates in appreciating the efforts of Kazakhstan, for the observance of the International Day against Nuclear Tests.
Courageous decision of the government of Kazakhstan in closing down all nuclear test sites in its territory, with no doubt, is a bold and exemplary step in the right direction.
Indeed, to rid the world of the danger of a nuclear war and to remove the threats posed to humanity by the existence of nuclear weapons, we need to adopt such practical measures and to stop all kinds of nuclear testing.
While after the catastrophic nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the elimination of nuclear weapons has become the highest priority of the international community, and despite the fact that the General Assembly in its very first resolution called for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, regrettably, continued non-compliance of Nuclear-Weapon States with their obligations under Article VI of the NPT, not only undermines the credibility of the Treaty, but also this unpromising development, coupled with the plans of Nuclear-Weapon States to further modernize and upgrade, or extend the lives of their nuclear weapons and related facilities, as well as to develop new easy-to-use nuclear weapons, would result in more desperation about the realization of a nuclear-weapon-free world.
In fact, a nuclear-weapon-free world shall not be considered as a world that exists only in our imagination. On the contrary, it should be built by us and materialized in our lifetime.
To materialize this noble goal, Nuclear-Weapon States have the primary responsibility. They should stop rhetoric, end euphemistic remarks, and start adopting practical measures to fulfill their nuclear disarmament obligations.
Likewise, the Israeli regime which possesses nuclear weapons and is the only non-NPT party in the Middle East, shall be compelled to renounce possession of nuclear weapons, to accede to the NPT without preconditions and any further delay and as a non-nuclear weapon party, and to place promptly all its nuclear facilities under the IAEA full-scope safeguards.
As a signatory to the CTBT (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty), the Islamic Republic of Iran, while emphasizing on the importance of this Treaty, believes that any nuclear test must severely be prohibited by any means, including through simulation by supercomputers and misuse of subcritical testing, which is against the letter and spirit of the CTBT and the commitments made by the Nuclear-Weapon States.
In conclusion, Mr. President, in our meeting which is held to observe the International Day against Nuclear Tests, we should also remember July 16, since the first ever nuclear test explosion has been conducted in such a day in 1945 by a country that also for the first time used nuclear bombs; tested the first hydrogen bomb and carried out the first test of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb device; a country that conducted the most nuclear tests, possesses one of the largest nuclear weapon arsenals, and still is allocating billions of dollars to conduct developing new types of nuclear testing and to modernize its nuclear weapons; a country which in its Nuclear Posture Review threatened to use nuclear weapons against some NPT States Parties; a country that not only shares it nuclear weapons with some NPT States Parties and deployed such weapons in their territories, but also assisted the nuclear weapon capability of the Israeli regime which is the only source of instability and insecurity in the volatile region of the Middle East; a country that in addition to these cases of non-compliance with its unambiguous international legal obligations, is in clear non-compliance with its legal obligations under Article VI of the NPT.
Now it is ironic that a country with such a dark history in the nuclear testing, using nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon-sharing, and in obvious non-compliance with its NPT obligations, makes allegations against exclusively peaceful nuclear program of my country as a committed NPT Party.
EP/PA
END
MNA
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