17/04/2010 A much-awaited international two-day conference on disarmament and non-proliferation of atomic weapons has started in the Iranian capital on Saturday.
Top Iranian officials slammed “atomic criminal” the United States and called for its suspension from the UN atomic watchdog. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, in a message to the conference, said the use of nuclear weapons was "haram", meaning religiously prohibited, and branded Washington as the world's "only atomic criminal."
"Only the US government has committed an atomic crime. The world's only atomic criminal lies and presents itself as being against nuclear weapons proliferation, while it has not taken any serious measures in this regard," Sayyed Khamenei said in his message which was read out at the start of the meeting.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went a step further and called for Washington's suspension from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) along with all other nations who possess nuclear arms.
Ahmadinejad called for a global supervision of nuclear disarmament. "An independent international group which plans and oversees nuclear disarmament and prevents proliferation should be set up," the president said as he opened the conference. He said those who "possess, have used or threatened to use nuclear weapons be suspended from the IAEA and its board of governors, especially the US which has used a weapon made of atomic waste in the Iraq war."
During the two-day conference, international politicians will put their heads together to address the nuclear disarmament issue. Representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and experts from over 70 countries will also be taking part in the conference, which has been called "Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapon for No One."
Foreign ministers from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, the Central African Republic, Oman, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Swaziland participated, while Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar was represented by their deputy foreign ministers, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. Mehmanparast said a special aide of the Chinese foreign minister, representatives of the United Nations and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the chief of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) will also be present.
"Due to the eruption of the volcano (in Iceland), some foreign ministers from South America and Africa who had connecting flights may come later or tomorrow. Among them are also some experts of weapons of mass destructions and nuclear weapons," he added.
Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying in recent days that the conference would serve as preparation for the next NPT review meeting in New York early next month, which Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki plans to attend.
By hosting the event, Tehran hopes to raise awareness in the international community about the fact that nuclear weapon stockpiles held by world powers are the most significant menace to world security. Nuclear doctrines, atomic discrimination, globalization of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and double standards applied by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in its dealings with various states, are also to be high on the agenda. The need to make “clean and peaceful nuclear energy” available to all countries is also expected to be a highlight of the event.
The conference comes just days after Washington held its biggest ever nuclear summit. Iran criticized the 47-nation nuclear disarmament summit in Washington hosted by US President Barack Obama, on the grounds the United States holds one of the world's largest stocks of nuclear weapons.
At the US nuclear summit, Obama pressed China and other UN Security Council skeptics to back a fourth set of sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program but Beijing refused to come to America’s corner.
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