Israel real source of proliferation in region: Iran

Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva has slammed the Western countries for supporting the Israeli regime, "the real source of proliferation in the region".

Addressing the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Thursday, Ali Bahraini noted that the West has long blocked efforts to establish a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East.

"The international efforts to establish a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East, that was first initiated by Iran in early 1970s, has been effectively blocked by the US and its allies as part of their support toward the real source of proliferation in the region, i.e., the Israeli regime that keeps accumulating all kinds of WMD without being a party to any international legally binding disarmament instruments and without being subject to any accountability, safeguards or verification mechanism," said the envoy.

Israel, which pursues a policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear weapons, is estimated to possess 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, making it the sole possessor of non-conventional arms in West Asia.

The illegitimate entity has, however, refused to either allow inspections of its military nuclear facilities or sign the NPT.

What has emboldened Tel Aviv to accelerate its nuclear activities, according to observers, is the support from the United States and Europe, the two parties most critical of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.

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'CD’s decades-long stalemate'

The envoy also the long stalemate in the Conference on Disarmament can be resolved if nuclear weapon states show "political will" for observing their obligations.

"The CD’s decades-long stalemate, which has prevented it from fulfilling its mandate, could be reversed if all members, particularly the Nuclear Weapons States, demonstrate political will and live up to their commitments on the nuclear disarmament," he said.

"We stress the unequivocal undertaking of the Nuclear-Weapon States to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament," stressed the diplomat. 

Rejecting drone delivery allegations

Elsewhere, the Iranian envoy rejected the accusations that representatives of the European Union and Germany had leveled against Iran in the conference on January 24 about alleged drone deliveries to Russia and Iran's missile program.

Referring to the war in Ukraine, the envoy said "Iran's position has been clear and consistent" since the start of the conflict.

"Iran supports any efforts to find a peaceful solution to this conflict," he said, adding, "We categorically reject unsubstantiated and baseless claims that Iran has transferred unmanned aerial vehicles for use in the conflict in Ukraine."

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Bahraini also rejected the allegations made by Europeans about Iran's missile program. "The EU and German representative tried to give a self-serving narrative of the Security Council Resolution 2231 in order to falsely establish a link between their baseless allegations against Iran with Resolution 2231," he said.

"The text and spirit of resolution 2231 have nothing to do with Iran’s defensive missile program, as our missiles are not designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons because we don’t need such missiles and because we don’t have nuclear weapons," he highlighted.

Iran has said its missile program is solely for defensive purposes and is not up for negotiations, and has rejected allegations by the Western countries that the program violates Resolution 2231.

The resolution was adopted by the UN Security Council in July 2015 to endorse the Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which the United States unilaterally withdrew from three years later.

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