- The United States and Israel represent the real nuclear
threat to the world, not Iran, Tehran's chief envoy to the United Nations
said on Friday after an abortive conference on controlling nuclear
weapons.
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- The Iranian ambassador to the UN Javad Zarif said the
U.S. never intended to scrap its nuclear arsenal, despite promising to
eventually disarm when it signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
the landmark arms control pact.
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- In an interview with Reuters Zarif said Israel, widely
believed to have nuclear weapons, was the threat to the Middle East region.
"There is unanimity on the threat that is posed not only by Israeli
nuclear weapons but by its aggressive policy (in general)," he
said.
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- Washington is backing efforts by Britain, France and
Germany to persuade Tehran to halt its nuclear fuel program, which they
claim is intended to make atomic bombs an allegation which Iran strenuously
denies, insisting its program is for peaceful means.
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- Zarif dismissed as hollow U.S. pledges in 1995 and 2000
reaffirming its commitment to scrap its nuclear arsenal. "The U.S.
never had any intention of living up to its commitments under Article 6
of the treaty," he said.
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- In Article 6 of the NPT the five treaty signatories with
nuclear weapons -- Russia, the United States, France, Britain and China
-- agreed to eventually disarm.
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- Diversion tactic
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- Zarif maintains that the U.S. attacks on Iran's nuclear
program were merely a "smoke screen to divert attention from its
violations"
that included U.S. willingness "to use nuclear weapons against
non-nuclear
weapon states."
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- Every five years the 188 members of the NPT meet for
a month to review the landmark treaty. The 2005 review ended on Friday
without any agreement on how to improve the accord. Many delegates blamed
both Washington and Tehran for what they described a failure of the
conference
to do anything.
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- Washington lobbied to prevent the conference, which works
by consensus, from approving any documents that refer to its 1995 and 2000
pledges to disarm, while Iran blocked anything that referred to it as a
proliferation threat and NPT violator.
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- The only document approved by the conference was one
that merely listed the agenda and the participants.
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- Egypt also worked hard to prevent any substantive
conclusion
from the conference when it saw it had no chance of focusing criticism
on Israel's assumed atomic arsenal.
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- "Israel is the threat to the region," he said.
"It is one of the great ironies of our age that a country outside
the framework of legality in the area of non-proliferation is one of the
countries that is the most active participants against Iran," he
said.
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- Like atomic-armed India and Pakistan, Israel has never
signed the NPT. Though it does not admit nor denies having the bomb, it
is estimated that Israel has some 200 nuclear warheads.
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- http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8552
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