Azerbaijan, Baku, April 3 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
Iran calls on the international community to put pressure on Israel, Iran's Deputy Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations, Gholam Hossein Dehghani said, ISNA reported.
"Priority should be given to negotiations aimed at banning production, development, storage and use of nuclear weapons. Billions of dollars are spent by the nuclear weapon states to conduct tests and develop new generation of nuclear weapons," Dehghani said in an address to the UN Disarmament Commission (UNDC) meeting, adding that the situation causes serious concern.
He stressed the Islamic Republic of Iran strongly urge all countries, including NATO nuclear states to comply with their legal commitments stipulated in the NPT and omit possessing, using and threats to use the nuclear weapons from their military and security doctrine.
"In 1974 a nuclear weapons-free Middle East was proposed, however despite several resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly and the 1995 NPT Review Conference Middle East resolution, Israel refused to join the NPT and put all of its nuclear facilities under IAEA's watch," Dehghani noted.
Speaking of the cancelled 2012 WMD-free Middle East conference, Dehghani said Iran and all Arab countries have already been prepared to join the conference and Israel was the only side which refused to attend the meeting.
Dehghani also noted that Iran believes the best way to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons is to implement the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) terms in a comprehensive and non-selective manner, and guarantee that the treaty is exercised across the world and the Middle East.
Noting that there should be no preconditions, Dehghani called on the international community to put pressure on Israel, who is the only non-member of the NPT in the Middle East region.