Iran urges pressure on Israel to disarm

Iran has called on the international community to pressure the Israeli regime into joining international treaties on disarmament.

“The international community, in particular the powerful members of the [Chemical Weapons] Convention (CWC) should pressure the Zionist regime (Israel) to join binding international treaties on disarmament,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh said on Monday during the 15th session of the conference of CWC member states at The Hague.

He said that Israel’s covert program to develop weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons, posed the greatest threat to the Middle East.

The Iranian official described the annihilation of chemical weapons as the main objective of the CWC and said the convention’s credibility will be called into question if such weapons are not completely destroyed within the set time frame of April 29, 2012.

He also condemned Washington’s sale of such weapons to regimes that are not signatories to the CWC, including Israel.

Akhondzadeh insisted that such policies undermine the integrity and credibility of the convention.

He said that all CWC parties possessing chemical weapons were committed under the convention to destroy chemical weapons by that time, although evidence suggest that the US and Russia, two major possessors of chemical weapons, are failing to fulfill their commitment.

Akhoundzadeh called on all CWC member countries holding chemical weapons, including the US and Russia, to meet their obligations and stick to the set time.

Meanwhile, Tehran has on various occasions called on the international community to force Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The Israeli regime, which is widely believed to possess over 200 nuclear warheads, has refused worldwide calls to join the NPT.

The CWC aims to eliminate an entire category of weapons of mass destruction by prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons by state parties.