TEHRAN - Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, has criticized non-compliance to the Non-Proliferation Treaty by certain nuclear-armed countries.

In an address to the second session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT at the UN office in Geneva on Wednesday, Najafi said that policies adopted by certain Western countries, especially the U.S., have prevented the realization of the major objectives of the treaty. 

“As long as the U.S. pursues a unilateral policy regarding its nuclear programs, there will be no progress towards nuclear disarmament and we will be expecting to see the proliferation of nuclear weapons in all its dimensions,” Press TV quoted him as saying.

He also noted that the U.S., as a country which has used nuclear weapons against civilians for two times, is not qualified to make comments about other countries’ nuclear program.

Elsewhere, Najafi described Israel’s nuclear weapons program as the main obstacle to the creation of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons, blaming double standards adopted by certain nuclear-armed countries, including the U.S., for Israel’s development of atomic arms. 

In May 2015 Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu thanked the U.S. for blocking an Egyptian-led drive on a possible Middle East nuclear arms ban at a United Nations conference. 

NA/PA