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Tehran calls for int'l move for nuclear disarmament
April-19-2010

Tehran's conference on disarmament and non-proliferation concluded on Sunday with calling for the international move for the world without nuclear weapons.

As Tehran wrapped up its disarmament conference on Sunday, Iran 's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called for the international efforts to "achieve nuclear disarmament in all aspects."

Mottaki said international community has not done enough for nuclear disarmament, local satellite Press TV reported.

The international community, especially countries with nuclear weapons, has not been active enough for nuclear disarmament, Mottaki was quoted as saying.

In the second day of the conference in Tehran, he said that if people really want a world without nuclear weapons, the international community should come together and get it done, according to the report.

Iran's permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh said during the conference that a global move is a necessity for disarmament.

Addressing the participants at the closing session of the conference, Mottaki said the conference expressed its deep concern over the "continued existence of weapons of mass destruction, especially the nuclear weapons, and the use or threat to use such weapons."

The conference "put an emphasis on nuclear disarmament as the highest priority of the international community and the necessity for the total elimination of such inhumane weapons," said Mottaki, who was also the chairman of the conference.

He also called for "nuclear free zones in different parts of the world, in particular in the Middle East."

Mottaki said the participants emphasized the "inalienable right of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) state parties to use nuclear energy in all aspects."

He criticized what he called the double standards in implementing NPT regulations and said in the conference the participants "expressed the grave concern over the weakening of the non-proliferation regime due to the implementation of double- standards and discriminatory approaches by certain (Western) nuclear weapon states."

On the sidelines of the opening session of the disarmament conference in Tehran on Saturday, Soltanieh said the ongoing summit in Iran can play a significant role in next month's NPT conference in New York and Iran hopes Tehran nuclear summit could pave the way for NPT reforms.

"The talks in Tehran will undoubtedly have an effect on the ( NPT) review conference," he said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at the nuclear summit on Saturday that the United States should be removed from the IAEA, according to Press TV.

Ahmadinejad called for the launch of global establishment to supervise nuclear weapons disarmament.

In his address to the conference, Ahmadinejad said "disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are demands of the world's independent and peace-seeking nations."

To implement this, "the formation of an independent international group to plan and to supervise the disarmament of nuclear weapons and its non-proliferation" is proposed, Ahmadinejad added.

On Sunday Mottaki said the conference agreed "in order to review ways and means to promote the goals of this conference ... the second conference of International Disarmament and Security would be held in April 2011 in Tehran."

The Tehran conference, entitled "Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for None," opened on Saturday.

Iran has rejected U.S. and other Western claims that Tehran is making nuclear bombs.