Iranian Foreign Minister: Time for US, Other Nuclear Powers to Disarm

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/07/31/iranian-foreign-minister-time-us-other-nuclear-powers-disarm

In the wake of the historic agreement between Iran and world powers, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday called on known nuclear weapons states, including the United States and Israel, to walk the walk and begin disarming their own atomic arsenals.

Writing in the Guardian, Zarif declared: "I sincerely believe that the nuclear agreement between my country—a non-nuclear-weapon state—and the P5+1 (which control almost all nuclear warheads on Earth) is symbolically significant enough to kickstart this paradigm shift and mark the beginning of a new era for the non-proliferation regime."

"One of the many ironies of history is that non-nuclear-weapon states, like Iran, have actually done far more for the cause of non-proliferation in practice than nuclear-weapon states have done on paper," Zarif noted.

There is no public evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, and assessments by multiple U.S. government agencies have concluded the country has no plans to develop one.

"Meanwhile, states actually possessing these destructive weapons have hardly even 'talked the talk,' while completely brushing off their disarmament obligations under the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and customary international law," Zarif declared, referring to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

[4now]

1. Good idea

[Alfalfa]

2. I can't really see how anyone can criticize Iran's nuclear program with a straight face

While ignoring or supporting Israel's nuclear arsenal. Israel should be the first to disarm.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Nations with nuclear weapons

Nations hosting nuclear weapons
Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey


List of states that have pledged to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons
113 nations so far

http://www.icanw.org/pledge/

The Humanitarian Pledge these nations have signed

http://www.icanw.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HINW14vienna_Pledge_Document.pdf