Iran: No need to gain West's trust

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says there is no need for Tehran to gain the trust of Western nations since Iran abides by international regulations.

Arriving in New York to take part in a conference reviewing the 40-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), President Ahmadinejad also insisted that Iran considers disarmament an influential factor in global security and will accordingly pursue the matter.

Iran has "practical, impartial and clear proposals for this conference" to help the "global security and disarmament," the president said on Sunday upon his arrival at JFK airport.

In response to a reporter's question on ways to gain the trust of Western nations on the nuclear question, Ahmadinejad emphasized, "we should not offer ways to obtain their trust as Iran abides by the international law and acts within its framework," IRNA reported.

"Disarmament and the peaceful use of nuclear energy are two most important global issues," he added.

Ahmadinejad, who is scheduled to address the 2010 NPT Review Conference at the United Nations headquarters, left for New York at the head of a high-ranking delegation.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, senior Presidential Advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, and the Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi will accompany the Iranian president during the visit.

The conference, which will run from May 3 to May 28, aims to review the global progress in fulfilling disarmament obligations set out in the NPT.

Before leaving Tehran, Ahmadinejad told reporters that nuclear weapons have posed "the single greatest threat" to the world for more than sixty years.

Ahmadinejad said that the possession of an atomic bomb has become "an instrument to serve the hegemonic and expansionist interests of a select few."

"Under the pretext of nuclear non-proliferation, certain countries exert political pressure on those merely seeking to pursue peaceful enrichment activities," said the Iranian president.

He went on to say that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has failed to fulfill its main obligations over the past four decades. One of the obligations the IAEA has failed to meet, Ahmadinejad said, was the disarming of all nuclear-armed states.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=125242§ionid=351020104.