Iranian Deputy FM: World Waiting for Global N. Disarmament

Araqchi, whose country is the rotating president of the Non-Aligned Movement, made the remarks on behalf of the NAM, addressing a ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday.

“Two years ago in 2013, at the High level meeting of the General Assembly on Nuclear Disarmament, President Rouhani, on behalf of the NAM, proposed the designation of 26 of September as the International Day for the Total Elimination for Nuclear Weapons. That proposal was subsequently adopted by the General Assembly and that is why we are here today,” he said.

“A major purpose of the designation of 26 September as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons is to highlight the dangers of nuclear weapons and the utmost importance of nuclear disarmament as a global imperative,” Araqchi added.

Noting that the international community has waited too long for the realization of the goal of the total elimination of nuclear weapons, he said, “Without a doubt, all of us have to redouble our efforts to advance the goal of nuclear disarmament.”

“However, nuclear-weapon states have the primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament. We in the NAM are deeply concerned over the lack of progress by the nuclear-weapon states to fulfill their multilateral legal obligations on nuclear disarmament. We strongly urge them to comply with their long overdue legal obligation,” Araqchi said.

Stressing that the time is now ripe for taking a new and comprehensive approach on nuclear disarmament including through a comprehensive convention on nuclear weapons, he said, “This is the legitimate demand of the Non-Aligned Movement.”

Iran currently holds the rotating three-year leadership of the 118-member NAM, commonly a platform for anti-Western grievances against the developed world.

NAM members have always urged the full-scale and complete disarmament and elimination of the WMDs in the world, specially in the Middle-East, and called for the indiscriminate implementation of all contents of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Israel is believed to be the sole possessor of nuclear arms in the Middle-East with over 200 ready-to-launch warheads in its stockpile.