Nuclear-armed states ignore NPT pillars

A senior official says the Iranian president’s presence at the UN nuclear non-proliferation review conference is proof of Tehran’s peaceful nuclear intentions.

Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign policy advisor to Leader of the Islamic Ummah and Opressed People Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei, made the remarks on Sunday following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s departure for the UN headquarters in New York.

“The president’s presence in this conference portrays the importance that Iran attaches to the proper use of nuclear energy,” Velayati was quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency on the eve of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review conference.

Velayati expressed hope that the conference would be conducted in a manner that would finally place the treaty on the path to realizing its true aims, criticizing some nuclear-armed signatory states for refusing to comply with its articles.

Referring to the NPT’s three pillars of “nonproliferation, disarmament, and the right to peaceful nuclear energy,” Velayati accused certain states of arming Israel with nuclear warheads.

The very same nuclear armed states also “ignore articles demanding a reduction of their nuclear weapons stockpiles while denying help to nations striving for nuclear energy.”

He also noted that Ahmadinejad’s attendance would be a guarantee that Iran’s message “of peaceful nuclear energy for all and nuclear weapons for none would be heard by nations across the globe.”