WarSclerotic

NEW YORK – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani denounced the proliferation, use and stockpiling of nuclear weapons on Thursday, in his first extensive speech on nuclear arms since assuming office.

Calling for a “nuclear-free zone” in the Middle East, Rouhani said that Israel was the only country in the region that had not yet signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and requested that it do so “without delay.”

The developed world focuses on preventing states without nuclear weapons from acquiring them, Rouhani said, but the international community should also focus on disarming countries that have stockpiled hundreds or thousands of them since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Nonproliferation derives its legitimacy from the larger objective of nuclear disarmament,” he said, calling for a “high-level” conference within five years geared toward the “complete elimination” of the greatest weapons.

In a veiled reference to a Russian-brokered deal that will rid Syria of its massive chemical weapons stockpile, Rouhani said “all weapons of mass destruction” should be eliminated in the Middle East.

Addressing the General Assembly in his capacity as the head of the Non-Aligned Movement, Rouhani commended the “valuable contribution” of nuclear weapon-free zones to international peace and security. “A peaceful and secure world remains a shared ideal for us all,” he said. “We have an architecture of treaties and norms that aim to achieve this agreed goal, yet thousands of these weapons continue to pose the greatest threat to peace.

“Almost four decades of international efforts to establish nuclear weapon-free zones have regrettably failed,” he said. “Urgent, practical steps toward the establishment of such a zone are necessary. The international community has to redouble efforts in support of the establishment of this zone.”

Rouhani further said that taking steps to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world “is no substitute for destruction.”

“Nuclear weapon states have the primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament,” he said. “Threatening non-nuclear states with nuclear weapons should end. The modernization of these weapons undercuts efforts for their total abolition.”

He further called for the the implementation of the non-proliferation treaty “in a comprehensive and non-discriminatory manner.”