Iran chairing UN forum on disarmament

TEHRAN,May 29(MNA) – Iran took over the rotating presidency of the UN Conference on Disarmament on Monday and will hold it until June 23. The UN conference, which began in Geneva on May 13, is being led by Iranian Ambassador to the UN, Seyyed Mohammad Sajjadi. According to Fox News, the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, is the world’s most important disarmament negotiating forum. Though members have been divided in recent years, the conference and its predecessors have negotiated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament efforts, and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Past conferences have negotiated such major multilateral arms control and disarmament agreements such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. According to AP, the United States said on May 13 that it would refuse to send its ambassador to any meeting of the UN forum where nuclear disarmament is negotiated when it’s chaired by Iran claiming that countries under UN sanctions shouldn’t be allowed to hold such positions. The Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which the West suspects may be aimed at developing nuclear weapons capability but Iran insists is entirely peaceful. On May 14, Iran defended its election as the rotating chair of the forum, with Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran’s UN mission, saying, “The Islamic Republic of Iran is a founding member of the United Nations.” “Its election to the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament, as the most important disarmament negotiating body of the UN, is its right in accordance with the established practice and rules of procedure of this organ,” he said at the time, noting, “Iran is a State Party to and in full compliance with all major treaties prohibiting the weapons of mass destruction negotiated within this body.”