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Iranian Defense Minister: Iran Mulling Accession to Ottawa Convention

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi underlined Tehran’s respect for all international demining conventions and treaties, and said Iran is also mulling accession to Ottawa Convention.

“There are international treaties on demining and we respect their content. There is the Ottawa Convention and we are mulling accession to that convention,” Vahidi told press tv on the sidelines of an international conference on demining.

The Ottawa Treaty or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines (AP-mines) around the world.

The international conference on demining kicked off at Tehran’s permanent International Fairgrounds on Tuesday along with an exhibition of modern demining methods and a demining robot competition.

The three-day event is attended by Iranian and foreign military and civilian officials whose main goal is to find practical solutions for removing landmines and decreasing injuries and deaths caused by them.

According to some participants, there are around 120-140 million mines planted worldwide and for every mine removed, six mines are planted.

Mohammad Hossein Amir Ahmadi, head of the Iran Mine Action Center, said the center was established in 2006 and 85 of the people working for it have lost their lives demining since then.

Iran ranks high among countries infected with mines. During the war with Iraq, an area of 4.2 million hectares of the country’s western border regions was infected with mines of which 4.13 million hectares have been cleared so far.

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