- TEHRAN: Participants in an international disarmament conference in Iran say a nuclear weapons-free Middle East requires Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
A concluding statement from the two-day conference in Tehran also criticized what it called the double-standard by some nuclear powers that call for disarmament but ignore the atomic arsenal the Israel is widely believed to possess.
The conference statement was carried by Iran's official IRNA new agency.
Iran's own nuclear program is of major concern to Israel, the United States and other nations that believe Tehran is intent on developing an atomic weapons capability. Iran denies that and says it only wants to generate nuclear power.