Iran publicly committed itself not to pursue nuclear weapons, or any other weapons of mass destruction, and completely dismantled its vast stocks of chemical weapons before signing the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997. The United States has the second-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, consisting of about 9,400 nuclear bombs and warheads.
The US is not in a position to express concerns about Iran’s nuclear non-proliferation, given that Washington itself has one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world, and is the only nation in the world to have used it, Kazem Gharib Abadi, Iran’s permanent envoy to the Vienna-based international organisations, has said.
Pointing to the status of US ally Israel as the only country in the Middle East to have developed a nuclear arsenal while refusing to join the relevant international treaties, Gharib Abadi accused Washington of hypocritically failing to confront Tel Aviv, as well as other regional allies, on their research into weapons of mass destruction.
“If they are honest in their claims about the implementation of high verification standards by members of the [International Atomic Energy Authority], what do they think about implementing such verification standards in other parts of the Middle East? How many times have they expressed concerns in this regard?” the diplomat asked.
Gharib Abadi stressed that Iran “does not put any value on unfounded and authoritarian noises and claims by the US and Israeli regime” about Iranian nuclear proliferation, and suggested that the main purpose of such claims “is to put pressure on and divert the agency and the member states to achieve their political interests.”
Gharib Abadi’s comments follow a statement by the US delegation demanding that Iran be subject to the ‘same high standards’ for non-proliferation verification as other NPT members.
Iran committed itself to reducing the scope of its nuclear activities under the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear treaty signed in 2015. Washington unilaterally pulled out of the deal in 2018, and imposed crushing sanctions on the country. Iran accused the deal’s European members of failing to find an effective alternative to US sanctions pressure, and in 2019, reduced its commitment to the deal by increasing enrichment levels and stockpiles of enriched materials. Tehran maintains it has no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons, and its uranium enrichment levels as reported by the IAEA remain far below the purity levels required to build a nuclear bomb.
On Wednesday, IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi indicated that although Iran’s enrichment levels are above the limits set out by the JCPOA, the agency has not observed any “significant increase in volumes” of advanced centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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