Subcritical nuclear test undermined world peace, Iranian MP says

Iranian MP Mohammad Hassan Asafari has denounced the subcritical nuclear test the United States conducted on Wednesday, saying the move threatened world peace.

“The nuclear test the US has recently conducted in the Nevada desert undermines international peace,” Asafari, who is also the deputy chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian Majlis (parliament), said on Saturday.

The test “proves that the global arrogance pays particular attention to producing and proliferating weapons of mass destruction,” he stated.

The United States has done nothing for the campaign for total nuclear disarmament and is even making efforts to scuttle the international conference on a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East, he opined.

And the US is well aware that Iran is playing a leading role in the efforts to make the Middle East a nuclear-weapons-free zone and will pursue the goal at international forums until world peace is established, he added.

The test, known as Pollux, was conducted jointly by the Nevada National Security Site, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories on December 5 with the purpose of providing “crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons.”

The experiment was a subcritical nuclear test, which examines the behavior of plutonium when shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives.

According to the United Nations, the United States — which is the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons against human beings — has conducted 1,032 nuclear tests since 1945.