TEHRAN - Iran’s representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has said that the illegal efforts of the United States to maintain its chemical weapons threaten world peace and security.

Kazem Gharibabadi, who is also Iran’s ambassador to the Netherlands, made the remarks in The Hague on Monday during the first day of the Sixteenth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, which opened on November 28 and closes on December 2.

He said that the continued existence of chemical weapons stockpiles will endanger international peace and security, and the use of such inhumane and lethal weapons would be a nightmare.

Iran’s opposition to chemical weapons is based on certain principles, the legal dimensions of which are based on the articles of the convention and the humanitarian dimensions of which are based on the disastrous impact of the use of such weapons against innocent people, he added.

The threats to the world can only be eliminated through complete and sincere commitment to the terms of the convention, Gharibabadi stated. 

He also said that April 29, 2012 has been set as the final deadline for the total eradication of all chemical weapons, but the U.S., which is the country that has the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons, has officially announced that it will not meet the 2012 deadline and has set 2021 as its target date.

The United States’ non-compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention must be addressed by the international community, including the United Nations, because this measure will undermine the only international treaty on chemical weapons, he added.

“We doubt the political will of the government of the United States. The U.S. decision to delay the total eradication of its chemical weapons for a long time… has made the world worried,” he stated.

On Monday, OPCW Director General Ahmet Uzumcu visited an exhibition of photographs of Iranian victims of Iraq’s chemical weapons attack on Sardasht, West Azerbaijan Province, which occurred on June 28, 1987. 

Uzumcu said he hoped that catastrophes like the Sardasht attack never occur again.

The exhibition is being held in The Hague on the sidelines of the chemical weapons conference.