Nuclear test in Nevada shows US aggressive nature: Iran MP

An Iranian lawmaker has censured the US subcritical nuclear test recently conducted in Nevada amid the growing global urge for nuclear disarmament, saying it once again laid bare Washington’s aggressive nature.

“The recent US nuclear test shows that American statesmen are still following their aggressive and domineering nature,” spokesman for the Majlis (parliament) Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Hossein Naqavi Hosseini told IRNA on Saturday.

The US move also showed that Washington is still making efforts to produce and proliferate nuclear weapons, he added.

The Iranian legislator emphasized that many defenseless people have lost their lives as a result of the use of US nuclear weapons during World War II and the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hiroshima was devastated on August 6, 1945 when the US B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city. An estimated 140,000 people died either instantly or gradually from radiation sickness and cancers. Three days later, the US dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing more than 70,000 people.

Naqavi Hosseini pointed out that Iran is among the victims of weapons of mass destruction. The US allegations about Tehran’s production of nuclear weapons are baseless, showing Washington’s illusion, he said.

The subcritical experiment, dubbed as Pollux, was conducted on Wednesday with the purpose of providing “crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons.”

Subcritical nuclear tests examine the behavior of plutonium when shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives.

According to UN figures, the US, which is the only country that has ever used atomic bombs against human beings, has conducted 1,032 nuclear tests since 1945.