A top Iranian official on Wednesday slammed world powers for failing to meet their own promises to eliminate their nuclear arsenals and contribute to global non-proliferation.
Gholam Hossein Dehghani, Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, made the statements in an address to the UN’s Disarmament Commission.
Dehgani criticized nuclear weapons states for falling far short on commitments they made in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), first implemented more than four decades ago.
Dehgani’s statements specifically targeted China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the five nuclear weapons states that have signed the NPT. Israel, India, Pakistan and also known atomic weapons states, and according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, North Korea possesses nuclear weapons as well.
There is no known evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program or intends to create one.
“The NPT, which was the foundation of the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime, had succeeded in constraining the spread of nuclear weapons because non-nuclear-weapon States had kept their end of the bargain,” said Dehgani, according to the UN’s summary of his statements.
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