Iran Presidency Over UN Disarmament Confab Starts

Vienna, May 28, IRNA – The Islamic Republic of Iranˈs presidency over the United Nations conference on disarmament started Monday in Geneva. The new Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations Office at Geneva Mohsen Naziri Asl briefed the audience on Tehranˈs programs during its presidency over the body. Iran will chair the conference for four weeks beginning on May 27. Naziri Asl stressed that Iran would spare no efforts to help materialize the objectives of the conference. According to reports, during its presidency, the Islamic Republic of Iran would focus on promoting the goals and objectives of the Conference on Disarmament through according the highest priority to nuclear disarmament and the total elimination of nuclear arsenals of the nuclear-weapon states in an irreversible, transparent and internationally verifiable manner. The 65-nation Conference on Disarmament, created in 1978, negotiated biological and chemical weapons conventions but has been unable to carry out substantive work since 1998 because members could not agree on priorities./end