http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=230059
*27,000 nuclear weapons threaten the world: Iran’s IAEA envoy **Tehran** Times Political Desk* *TEHRAN - Today the world is threatened by 27,000 nuclear weapons, Iran’s permanent envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency said during a conference on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in Vienna on Monday. * The bilateral agreements known as START 1 and START 2 distract attention from the need to immediately dismantle all nuclear weapons, Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh stated. “Bilateral agreements over the past four decades on the reduction of the number of nuclear weapons like SALT 2 as well as START 1 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and finally START 2 (signed) on April 8, 2010 in Prague by the U.S. and Russia, were in fact meant to allay the international community’s security concerns,” he explained. The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) refers to two rounds of bilateral talks and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union on the issue of armament control known as SALT I and SALT II. Negotiations commenced in Helsinki, Finland, in 1969. SALT I led to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and an interim agreement between the two powers. Although SALT II resulted in an agreement in 1979, the United States chose not to ratify the treaty in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which took place later that year. The U.S. eventually withdrew from SALT II in 1986. The treaties then led to START (the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which consisted of START I (a 1991 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union) and START II (a 1993 agreement between the United States and Russia). On April 8, 2010, President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a new nuclear disarmament treaty in Prague, replacing the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 2) that expired on December 5. Soltanieh said that experience has shown that over the past few decades, the number of nuclear weapons has not decreased at all and the world has become exposed to an even greater threat from nuclear weapons. Elsewhere in his remarks, he said the fact that nuclear weapons states opposed a proposal, which was presented by 116 Non-Aligned Movement members at the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in New York, calling for the eradication of all nuclear weapons by the year 2025, proves these countries do not intend to eliminate nuclear weapons from their military doctrines. For instance, Britain has allocated 30 billion pounds to expand the capability of its nuclear submarines, he added. The development of more advanced nuclear weapons technology and the fact that nuclear experiments are being conducted through unconventional methods are major concerns for the international community, he stated. The international community does not trust the United States because it is the only country that has used nuclear weapons and it currently possesses thousands of nuclear weapons, he noted. Soltanieh also said Iran has always lived up to its international commitment to avoid nuclear proliferation and to refrain from conducting experiments about nuclear weapons.
