Iran expects showdown at NPT summit

An Iranian lawmaker says the upcoming conference in New York will force a showdown between nuclear-armed states and those who seek nuclear energy.

The parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will attend the five-yearly review conference in New York in May. The UN-hosted summit will come after Iran, a signatory to the NPT, held an international disarmament conference in Tehran.

Senior Iranian lawmaker Kazem Jalali said Monday the Tehran conference has laid the foundation for the NPT gathering to successfully steer the treaty toward its objective of global disarmament.

"It is a good introduction for states with no atomic bombs to attend the NPT review," he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.

"Two fronts will battle out in New York: a US-led one will seek to limit non-nuclear states which are hoping to develop peaceful nuclear technology; the second front will consist of countries with no nuclear bombs that seek global nuclear disarmament."

Jalali added that the non-proliferation regime had failed to achieve its objectives due to the policies of nuclear-armed countries.

"The onus of this failure is on the signatories to the NPT that currently possess around 20,000 atomic bombs," he said.

The lawmaker expressed hope that non-nuclear states would stand united against nuclear-armed countries at the summit.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=123792§ionid=351020104.