Iran Terms US, Israel “Greatest Violators of Chemical Weapons Convention

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi strongly condemned the blatant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) by the US and the Zionist regime of Israel.

In a message on the occasion of the National Day of Campaign against Chemical Weapons, Vahidi described Iran as the greatest victim of lethal weapons in the world.

Pointing to the fact that 2012 was the final deadline for annihilation of the world states’ chemical weapons, Vahidi said, “The US as the owner of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons and a member of the chemical weapons convention has flagrantly violated the convention by refusing to implement its undertaking (annihilation of chemical arms).”

He called on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to spare no effort to materialize the convention’s goals.

As the US is seeking to keep its chemical arsenals as a leverage against the world countries, Iran has repeatedly lashed out at Washington for defying its undertakings regarding the dismantlement of its chemical weapons.

Earlier in May, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh in a meeting with Head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Ahmet Uzumcu expressed regret that those countries possessing weapons of mass destruction, with the US on top of them, have failed to meet the deadline (April 29, 2012) for elimination of chemical arsenals.

In June 2011, the OPCW member states had also slammed the US and Russia for their refusal to dismantle and annihilate their chemical weapons, and warned that their case would be referred to the UN Security Council and other world bodies if they continued their inaction.

Iran is one of the 41 members of the OPCW Executive Council and has always stressed the urgent need for the dismantlement of the WMDs, including chemical weapons, as it has been a victim of such weapons.

Tens of thousands of Iranians were killed and wounded by chemical weapons during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).