Iran has played a key role in pushing for bids to establish a nuclear arms free zone in the Middle East, Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani says, Press TV reported.
"The Islamic Republic was the architect of the initiative for a Middle East without nuclear weapons and seeks global disarmament," Ahani, who is in Hungary on an official visit, said on Friday.
"From the Islamic Republic's point of view, nuclear weapons are not an empowering tool but the use or the threat of their use is rather deemed as a sign of selfishness and weakness," IRNA quoted the Iranian diplomat as saying.
The remarks come two days after another Iranian Foreign Ministry official called on the international community to fight terrorism with a stance free of "discrimination" and political bias.
"Countering terrorism requires a synchronized and all-encompassing international move free of discrimination and political maliciousness, with the aim of wiping all kinds of terrorism," Gholam-Hossein Dehqani, a member of Iran's mission to the UN, said on Wednesday during a UN Security Council session.
The US and its allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program.
Iranian officials have repeatedly refuted the claims, stressing that as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is determined to free the world of nuclear weapons and only seeks to use the peaceful applications of nuclear technology.
Tehran has also slammed Washington's support of the nuclear ambiguity policy of Israel -- the widely believed sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East.