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FM: Dismantling chemical weapons will boost security in ME

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Dec 6, IRNA
Iran-Chemicals-Mottaki
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in The Hague in the Netherlands on Wednesday that dismantling chemical weapons in the Middle East would make its application in the region impossible and raise security standards there.

Addressing the meeting of the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Hague, Mottaki said the Islamic Republic of Iran believes that international treaties envisage a series of obligations and rights and all the members -- irrespective of their size, population and power -- share equal rights and duties in them.

He said not a single government or a group of governments are above the law and all signatories to a treaty should be committed to their duties and benefit from their due rights.

Due to the same reason, said Mottaki, Tehran has always been insisting on its right for development of nuclear enrichment power.

"With the objective of peace and justice for all, let's join hands on the basis of our achievements in the OPCW to save the world from weapons of mass destruction," said Mottaki.

He further called for stopping selfishness, intrusion, exploitation and war and making the world safe for the present and future generations.

He said that Tehran strongly believes that chemical weapons should not be used and perpetrators of such crimes should not go unpunished and those supplying Saddam's regime with such inhumane weapons should be held accountable to justice.

The International Convention against Chemical Weapons (CCW) is a multi-lateral agreement for prohibition of a full range of weapons of mass destruction, he added.

Mottaki said the Convention supports multilateralism without consideration to the policy of power. "The Convention is free from any discrimination and does not create the rich and poor classes." The Convention is in fact a disarmament and non-proliferation convention, envisaging a timetable for dismantling weapons, said Mottaki, adding that of course, the Convention concurrently boosts international cooperation in chemical technology.

"Dismantling chemical arms is and has been the basic and genuine goal of the Convention. The commitment presents a security balance in the Convention, therefore, success and credit of the Convention is assessed and justified on the basis of the extent of the commitment's fulfillment."

Tehran feels the danger of slow pace of destruction of chemical weapons regarding the expected deadlines, said the Iranian official, questioning, "What if the biggest possessors of chemical weapons refuse to dismantle them? Take Kyoto protocol as an example; What would happen then?"

With the approach of 2012, set as the eventual deadline, it is necessary to expedite the process of dismantling of chemical arms, he said.

Mottaki said Tehran calls on all countries, possessing chemical weapons, especially the main ones, not to spare any efforts to observe the deadlines set in the Convention for full dismantlement of their weapons.

Referring to Iran's positive record in accession to the disarmament and non-proliferation treaties and conventions, Mottaki said that without universalization of the Convention of
Non-Proliferation of Chemical Weapons, countries cannot remain immune to application of such arms by the non-member states.

The issue can be more sensitive in the case of Middle East, where the rate of accession to the Convention is low, he added.

Having understood the importance of the Convention's universalization for international peace and security, the Islamic Republic of Iran supports a new move to build efforts of the secretariate.

Labeling the Zionist Regime of Israel as the most dangerous state in that connection, Mottaki said the regime, with all its weapons of mass destruction including chemical and nuclear arms, has turned into the most important source of threat to international and regional peace and security.

He said all provisions of the Convention are interlinked and affect each other. Article 11 of the Convention on international cooperation is considered by many states as a factor for motivation of accession.

The Convention explicitly maintains that the Chemical Arms Non-Proliferation Treaty should not harm economic and technological development of the member states and chemical trade among members for peaceful purposes should be promoted, said Mottaki, regretting that the article's regulations have not yet been fully implemented.

A basic element in full implementation of the Convention is promotion of free trade of chemical substances for peaceful purposes, he added.

Resorting to any willful and special restrictions in exchange of the technology of substances and equipment by the members for peaceful purposes runs counter to the spirit and content of the Convention and is 'illegal', said Mottaki, adding that the aim of the move is to create a sort of scientific and technological apartheid.

The Iranian minister said that in the course of the past few decades, some people have been trying to re-define the international disarmament and non-proliferation conventions in line with their own wishes. They introduce themselves as the mouthpiece of international community and guardians of the norms, he added.

Unilateralism, selective point of view, discrimination and downgrading international treaties would undoubtedly harm the creditability and cohesion of the international disarmament and non-proliferation conventions, he concluded.

1420/2322/1412