Iran has criticized the United States for allocating a huge budget to nuclear proliferation, saying it contradicts Washington's claim of supporting a nuke-free world, Press TV reported.
Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaei condemned the US nuclear double standards and said Washington advocates a nuclear-free world on the one hand, while it continues to develop and modernize its nuclear arsenal on the other.
"The US plan to develop and modernize nuclear weapons ... to which a budget of more than one hundred billion dollars is allocated to is in direct contradiction to the White House slogans on a nuke-free world," Khazaei told the UN General Assembly's Disarmament Committee on Friday.
The Iranian envoy also referred to the US nuclear bombardment of Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and said the existence of thousands of nuclear warheads in the arsenals of nuclear countries continues to cast a "shadow of fear" over the world.
The UN General Assembly's Disarmament Committee in a meeting in New York on Friday discussed a new nuclear disarmament treaty between the United States and Russia.
During the meeting, the member states of the Non- Aligned Movement (NAM), in a statement, criticized the new START pact, citing inadequate measures to counter nuclear threats.
The statement, which was proposed by Iran and read out at the meeting, called on the US and Russia to stick to their commitments to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on the destruction of all their nuclear weapons.
The US and Russia were also urged to adopt a transparent nuclear policy and to meet their international nuclear verification obligations in order to ensure global denuclearization.
The statement said that the reduction of nuclear weapons was no substitute for their destruction as the only way to protect the world against nuclear threat was complete denuclearization.
The NAM members states also voiced deep concern over NATO's nuclear policies that justifies the use of nuclear weapons.
The US and Russia, both signatories to the NPT, are major possessors of nuclear weapons.