Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said America deceptively calls for non-proliferation while holding on to its own weapons and failing to confront Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear bombs.
The two-day conference appeared timed as a counterweight to US President Barack Obama’s 47-nation summit in Washington last week to discuss nuclear security. Obama did not invite Iran.
“The deceptive policy by the sole nuclear offender, which falsely claims to be advocating the nonproliferation of nuclear arms while doing nothing substantive for this cause, will never succeed,” Khamenei said.
Iran’s conference brought together representatives from 60 countries, including China, Russia, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey and France, as well as delegates from international bodies and nongovernmental organizations, according to Iranian media.
Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and several other senior Iranian officials took turns at the podium to warn that America’s nuclear policy was endangering the world and encouraging nations to consider withdrawing from the Non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.
If the US meant what it said about stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, Israel would not have been able to “turn the occupied land of Palestine into an arsenal with huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons,” Khamenei said.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov called for more confidence-building measures from Iran to allay global concerns over its nuclear program.
