TEHRAN, Iran — A two-day Iranian-hosted international disarmament conference concluded Sunday with a demand that Israel join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to assure a nuclear weapons-free Middle East.
The conference followed closely behind a 47-nation nuclear security conference hosted by President Obama in Washington last week, which excluded Iran and nuclear-armed North Korea. Washington and its allies suspect Iran’s nuclear program is geared toward producing weapons, which Tehran denies.
As the conference was ending Sunday, Iran staged an annual military parade where it displayed missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The forum, which Iran said was attended by representatives of 60 countries, gave Tehran a platform for challenging Washington’s assertion that it wants to see a world without nuclear arms and for defending its own nuclear program.
It criticized what it called a double standard by some nuclear powers that urge disarmament while ignoring the nuclear arsenal Israel is widely believed to possess.
A nuclear weapons-free Middle East requires “the Zionist regime to join the NPT,” said the concluding statement of the conference, read out by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Israel, which will neither confirm nor deny possessing nuclear arms, has refused to sign the NPT, which would require it to open up its nuclear facilities to international inspectors.
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