NAM, China Reiterate Global Disarmament, Dismantlement of WMDs

China and the members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in a joint statement demanded worldwide disarmament and elimination of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs).

The statement was read on the first day of the 72nd conference meeting of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Hague, the Netherlands, by Iran’s Envoy Kazzem Qaribabadi.

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 and China in their joint statement urged the full-scale and complete disarmament and elimination of the WMDs, and called for the indiscriminate implementation of all contents of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

The statement also underlined support for the OPCW approval for the establishment of an international network to support the victims of chemical weapons.

The CWC is a major international arms control agreement that outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons by its signatories. The agreement is administered by the OPCW.

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).