Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has failed and Iran will propose changes, as he left for New York yesterday to take part in a conference to review the NPT.
The Iranian leader is to address the NPT conference today, at the head of a delegation including Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
“The biggest threat to the world today is the production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons. For more than 60 years, the atomic threat has influenced world relations,” Ahmadinejad told reporters before leaving for New York.
“The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] in the past 40 years has not been successful in its mission. We have no disarmament or non-proliferation and some countries have even procured the nuclear bomb during this period,” he said.
Iran is a signatory of the NPT, a creation of the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, and as such has the right to enrich uranium — the most controversial part of its nuclear program.
Uranium when enriched at over 90 percent level can be used to make an atomic bomb.
Washington, its ally Israel — believed to be the only undeclared nuclear weapons power in the Middle East — and other world powers accuse Iran of masking a weapons drive under the guise of what Tehran says is a purely civilian atomic program.
Ahmadinejad, who has refused to abandon the uranium enrichment program and often lashes out at the NPT structure, said Iran’s delegation would propose changes to the treaty during the review conference.
“This is an important meeting. For some time now, committees have been formed to undertake a fundamental revision [of the NPT] in order to achieve the aims for which the IAEA was formed,” he said, quoted by Fars news agency.
“It is necessary to participate in this meeting at the highest level to offer the Iranian nation’s proposals to the world. If this meeting is successful in making fundamental reforms to the NPT, it will be a big stride forward towards world security,” he said.
Ahmadinejad is expected to defend Iran’s right as a signatory to the NPT to master the nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium enrichment.
He is also expected to urge other NPT signatories to pressure Israel to sign the treaty, at a time when Washington is pressing world powers to impose a fourth round of UN sanctions against Tehran for defiantly enriching uranium.
Ahmadinejad’s press adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr said Iran’s “constructive” proposals should be heard by US President Barack Obama.
“The proposals are in line with the slogans of change that Mr Obama makes. If he still believes in what he says, he should welcome Mr Ahmadinejad’s proposals,” Javanfekr said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS