World tired of West double standards

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says world powers cannot use their nuclear weapons to bully other nations into giving up efforts to obtain peaceful nuclear energy.

In a meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart in Sofia, Mottaki said, “Today, the world public opinion and the international community do not accept double standards and selective dealings.”

Mottaki highlighted Iran’s role as one of the founders of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and one of those contributing to the “nuke-free Middle East” initiative.

The minister reiterated that Iran’s stance was one of “nuclear energy for all, nuclear arms for none” — the slogan introduced by Tehran at an international nuclear disarmament conference hosted by the Islamic Republic.

“Those who have used nuclear arms against humanity and are now threatening other nations with such weapons have no right to prohibit others from exercising their inalienable right to peaceful nuclear energy,” Mottaki added.

The Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov, for his part, hailed Iran’s recent move to issue a trilateral nuclear fuel swap declaration with Brazil and Turkey.

He described the May 17 declaration as a positive effort toward achieving a reasonable solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.