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Kharrazi addresses NPT review confab (Part 2)

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

United Nations, New York, May 4, IRNA
UN-NPT-Kharrazi
In a nutshell, the following developments must be fully taken into account in our appraisal: Commitments need to be renewed to ban developments of new nuclear weapon systems.

1. Concerns continue to remain over the research and development of new non-strategic and low-yield nuclear weapons. The nuclear-weapon States should ensure that irreversibility would apply also to their existing measures in removing the warheads from the nuclear weapon systems.

2. The principle of irreversibility should be applied to all unilateral, bilateral and multilateral nuclear disarmaments Consequently, there should be a commitment to revise nuclear doctrines, policies and postures to reflect such lowered operational status.

3. Effective steps should be taken to lower the operational status of nuclear weapons to reduce nuclear war. Fresh efforts should be made within the CD to negotiate the arrangements to prevent arms race in outer space. In the meantime, the nuclear-weapon States should make a commitment in this conference to make every effort to prevent such an arms race.

4. Development of national missile defense systems would instigate new arms race in outer space and should be avoided.

5. Unilateral nuclear disarmament measures should be pursued vigorously and go well beyond removing warheads from deployment.

6. Submission of more detailed information, inter alia, on the total current numbers of nuclear weapons, the numbers and yield of their warheads, the plan for the deployment and development of missile defense, and the inventories of fissile materials for weapon purposes, are expected from the nuclear-weapon States as a confidence building measure and transparency.

7. The negotiation on a verifiable fissile material cut off treaty needs to be started at the CD within its overall.

Mr President, legally prohibit the use of these two categories of weapons of mass destruction. But contrary to the legitimate expectations of the international community, prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons, as the most destructive and catastrophic weapons, is yet to be affirmed through the conclusion of a legally-binding instrument.

Unfortunately, against the backdrop of this existing gap, some nuclear-weapon states are developing new and more easy-to-use nuclear weapons.

I would like, hereby, to echo the proposal of the civil society for legal prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons within the context of this NPT Review Conference.

In the same vein, the unfulfilled commitments and promises on a legally binding instrument on Negative Security Assurances in the framework of the 1995 package of Decisions and the 2000 Final Document needs to be materialized in this Conference. The 2000 Review Conference, under the Article VII of its Final Document reaffirmed that total elimination of nuclear weapons is the only absolute guarantee against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons agreed that legally binding security assurances by the five nuclear-weapon States to the non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT strengthen the non-proliferation regime, and called upon the Preparatory Committee to make recommendations about it to the 2005 Review Conference.

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::IRNA No.015 04/05/2005 12:29 --End