Irans Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani has called on the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) member states to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).The [IPU] parliaments must oblige the governments of their countries to join the NPT, and if their countries possess nuclear arms, they must, under the treaty, dismantle them in a specific period of time with the assistance of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Larijani said at the IPU Assembly on Tuesday.
Larijani expressed regret that the possessors of nuclear arsenals still continue to keep thousands of nuclear warheads in their stockpiles and upgrade them, adding that they have sometimes used depleted nuclear materials in recent wars.
The Iranian parliament speaker lashed out at big powers for backing Israel, which is in possession of hundreds of nuclear warheads, and noted the very same countries threatened to invade Syria over the likelihood of the Syrian governments use of chemical weapons while information announced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov eventually revealed that it was the terrorists in Syria who are in possession of chemical arms.
On September 14, Russia and the United States agreed on a deal, based on which Syria would have its chemical weapons stockpiles eliminated and the US would, in return, not carry out planned strikes on the Middle Eastern country.
The agreement came after days of mounting war rhetoric against Syria by the United States and some of its allies, which blamed Damascus for a fatal chemical attack on the outskirts of the Syrian capital on August 21. Damascus rejected the accusation that it was behind the gas attack.
Larijani pointed to the Wests allegations against Irans nuclear energy program, adding that the very countries that assist Israel in its clandestine development and illegal storage of nuclear arms are actively involved in imposing sanctions against Iran, which has explicitly declared that nuclear weapons have no place in its defense doctrine.
Israel, which is believed to be the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East with 200-400 warheads, has refused to acknowledge that it possesses nuclear arms and, unlike Iran, is not a signatory to the NPT.
This is while the United States, Israel and some of their allies repeatedly accuse Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with the US and the European Union having used the unsubstantiated claim as an excuse to impose illegal sanctions against Tehran.
Iran has categorically rejected the allegation, stressing that as a committed member of the IAEA and a signatory to the NPT, it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
By Press TV
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