Azerbaijan, Baku, April 9 /Trend, D.Khatinoglu/
Although the conference on nuclear disarmament to be held in Tehran a week after the U.S. Summit on Nuclear Safety did not receive the support of the international community, it assumes diplomatic significance for the Ahmadinejad government. The conference will be held in the U.S. April 12-13, in Iran - April 20.
Of the leading countries worldwide, only China is considering its participating at the forthcoming meeting in Tehran, professor of political science at Tehran University Sadeq Zibakalam told Trend.
But the U.S. conference will be attended by 44 countries, including the permanent members of the UN Security Council and the leading countries worldwide. According to the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, 60 countries have been invited to the summit in Iran, but the list of invited countries and information about their concrete participation is not made publicly available.
After his visit to China in early April, the Head of Iran's Supreme Security Council Saeed Jalili said the official Beijing has promised to attend the Tehran conference, however, "the Celestial Empire" only confirmed the fact of the invitation, being silent about its intentions to participate at this meeting.
According to Zibakalam, it is not excluded that Russia will join the conference. "The participation of China and Russia at this conference is very important for Iran. I think that the European countries will not join the conference, but the participation of other major countries, including such as Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Malaysia, is possible," said the professor by telephone from Tehran.
Experts express different opinions about the result and success of the conference in Tehran, but despite that this meeting assumes diplomatic significance for Iran, accused by the West of trying to produce nuclear weapons.
Conference to be held in the U.S. differs from the forthcoming meeting in Tehran, Senior Fellow of Washington Council on Foreign Relations Thomas Lippman told Trend. The conference, to be held under the organization of the U.S. government, is related to "the security of nuclear materials and facilities and the ways to prevent them from falling into the hands of dangerous forces", but the Tehran conference will be dedicated to "the nuclear disarmament," Lippman wrote to Trend in an e-mail from Washington.
According to Professor University of Glasgow Rza Taghizadeh, Iran intends to change the strict attitude of the international community towards its nuclear program. It is possible that the leading countries worldwide will not display an interest in participating at the Tehran conference, Taghizadeh told Trend by telephone from London.
However, according to Zibakalam, even in case of failure, the Tehran conference will be a kind of diplomatic victory for Iran.
"Holding this conference, Iran wants to show the world what it is really interested in preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction both in the region and around the world. Thus, Iran is trying to demonstrate a serious attitude toward this issue," said Zibakalam.
Iranian officials have repeatedly accused the West of applying double standards in the nuclear issue.
Iranian officials have repeatedly accused the West of pursuing the policy of double standards in the nuclear issue.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the existence of nuclear weapons in Israel threatens the entire Middle East. Israel, however, did not confirm or deny that it has such weapons, but, according to nuclear experts, the country has 88 nuclear warheads. In 1998 and 2006 nuclear test was conducted by Pakistan and North Korea.
According to experts, the conference in Tehran will be ineffective. Zibakalam thinks that if the leading Western countries, including the U.S., Britain, France do not take serious steps towards preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, then other countries' efforts in this regard will not bring any results.
According to Zibakalam, with this conference, Iran is trying to dismiss all charges of the Western countries, which are confident in Tehran's production of nuclear weapons. And also Iran tries to demonstrate that it is a staunch supporter of preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Up to now, the UN Security Council has adopted five resolutions, three of which involve economic sanctions, to suspend Iran's nuclear program. Currently, the permanent members of UN Security Council discuss the possibility of approving the fourth resolution against Tehran.
T.Konyayeva and T.Jafarov contributed to the article.