Iran speaker slams US nuke policy

Iran's parliament speaker has criticized the new US nuclear arms policy, pointing out that it is in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"The US has announced it will not use nuclear weapons except in extraordinary situations. It has also pledged not to use atomic bombs against NPT members, apart from Iran and North Korea," Ali Larijani said, addressing the Iranian parliament on Sunday.

"And they call this a 'new' nuclear arms strategy. Just take a look at how many contradictory issues are embedded in this policy," he said.

"The term 'extraordinary situation' can always be used to justify a US nuclear attack. This proves the reports that leaked about the use of low-yield nuclear weapons in Iraq were true," he added.

Last week, US President Barack Obama released a new US Nuclear Posture Review that among other things will restrict the use of nuclear arms against most non-atomic states.

The exception will remain for a possible nuclear attack on countries that are, from the US perspective, not in compliance with non-proliferation treaties.

In a Monday interview with The New York Times, Obama clarified what Washington meant by non-compliance with non-proliferation treaties by saying that the loophole would apply to what he called "outliers like Iran and North Korea."


During his Sunday comments, Larijani asked US officials which international regulations they had based their new strategy on that would allow them to make such exceptions.

He pointed out that NPT-member states were obliged to dismantle their nuclear weapons instead of trying to make legal loopholes for their use.

Israel, India, and Pakistan are the only nuclear-armed regimes that have not signed the NPT. But, Obama made no reference to any of those nuclear-armed powers.

While North-Korea has withdrawn from the NPT, Iran has been a long-time member of the pact. Its civilian nuclear activities have also been placed under the supervision of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors.

The US, Israel and other Western powers allege that Iran is pursuing a military agenda under the guise of its civilian atomic program.

However, IAEA inspectors have not found anything to back up that claim, despite having inspected Iranian facilities more than any other sites around the world.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=123000§ionid=351020101.