Iran FM: Elimination of nuclear weapons legal, political, moral duty, irna.ir

…In this context, I would like to refer to the United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination, and the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was indeed a collective protest to the violation of obligations and unequivocal commitments of the nuclear-weapon States on nuclear disarmament. 
As an active participant in that conference, Iran voted in favor of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and will continue to support its overall objective. Contrary to some arguments that this treaty will undermine the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Iran is of the view that it will reinforce the nuclear disarmament regime. Indeed, what have undermined so far and continue to undermine the realization of the objectives of the NPT is nearly 50-year non-compliance of the nuclear-weapon States with their nuclear disarmament obligations under its article VI.
Iran stresses that Article VI obligations are quite clear and its implementation is neither optional nor conditional to such concepts as “strategic stability” or “international security environment”. The Treaty contains two explicit obligations: the obligation to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons and the obligation to disarm nuclear weapons entirely. They are inherently linked and designed to serve one objective i.e. no one should have nuclear weapons. We warn that non-implementation of article VI will continue to challenge the very foundation of the NPT, tarnish its credibility and undermining its effectiveness. Läs talet