UN General Assembly First Committee approves Iran's proposal for nuclear disarmament

The proposed resolution was adopted with the support of a majority of the UN members, Fars News reported on Thursday.

The resolution calls on the NPT signatories to accelerate the implementation of their commitments to the complete destruction of their nuclear arsenal in accordance with the principles of transparency, irreversibility and international oversight.

Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, nuclear states have pledged to destroy all their nuclear weapons. In addition, they are legally obliged not only to refrain from any attempt to build nuclear weapons, but also to refrain from transferring such weapons to other countries, deploying them outside their territory, or cooperating with other governments to build nuclear weapons.

After decades of non-compliance with these legal obligations, the nuclear armed states have reaffirmed their commitment to take effective practical steps to destroy nuclear weapons in the final documents of the NPT Review Conferences of 1995, 2000 and 2010.

Part of the resolution proposed by Iran also emphasizes the implementation of the decision of the NPT Review Conference in 1995 to establish a nuclear-weapon-free Middle East. The decision calls on the Zionist regime to join the NPT and accept the International Atomic Energy Agency's oversight of its nuclear facilities. 

Iran's proposed resolution also highlights the need to provide security assurances to non-nuclear states that they will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against them.

The United States, the Zionist regime, the European Union member states, and several of United States' Western allies voted against the resolution, despite their explicit commitment to nuclear disarmament.
 
Haidar-Ali Balouji, Iran's Permanent Representative to the UN International Committee for the Disarmament and Security at this year's meeting, referred to the new nuclear arms race and the process of modernization of these weapons as "warning trends" and called for an end to such actions. 

The resolution is expected to be presented to the UN General Assembly in about a month and will be finally adopted there.
Source: Tehran Times