Iran EU mission: NATO chief’s remarks misguided, irresponsible spinning of facts

Iran’s EU mission has vehemently condemned recent statements by the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the need for Iran to fully implement its obligations under its safeguard agreement with the UN nuclear watchdog.

Iran’s diplomatic mission to the European Union, which is based in the Belgian capital city of Brussels, made the remarks in a Monday tweet after NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg addressed Iran’s nuclear agreement and cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) following a meeting with the Israeli foreign minister, Yair Lapid, in Brussels.

“The NATO Secretary-General has reportedly ‘restressed Allies’ continued calls on Iran to uphold and fully implement all its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its safeguard agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency,” the Iranian mission said in a press release posted on its Twitter account.

It added that utterance of such remarks by the NATO chief would require the moral high ground, emphasizing that standing next to a man whose respective regime is neither a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) nor any other international disarmament instrument of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), does not help Stoltenberg in terms of the credibility of what he states.

"Such remarks are either misguided or a grossly irresponsible spinning of facts, not to mention highly irrelevant," the mission added.

It reiterated Iran's full compliance with the NPT and its complete implementation of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

According to the press release, making such statements while standing next to the representative of a regime that "flouts international humanitarian law and violates the fundamental human rights of the people on the one hand, and has made a mockery of non-proliferation and disarmament mechanisms on the other hand, is only an indescribably sad irony."

The Iranian mission concluded by calling on the NATO secretary general to "practice what he preaches specifically as regards this 'ally' and invite it to accede to the NPT," while refraining from such misguided calls on Iran.

In the meeting with the Israeli foreign minister, the NATO secretary general restressed Allies’ continued calls on Iran to uphold and fully implement all its obligations under the NPT and the IAEA Safeguard Agreement, and refrain from all activities he claims are inconsistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses the 2015 nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran is among the first countries to have signed the NPT. The country has also put its peaceful nuclear program under the surveillance of the UN nuclear watchdog.

This is while the regime of Israel, the sole nuke-armed entity in the region, is estimated to have 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal. The regime, however, refuses to either accept or deny having the weapons.

It has also evaded signing the NPT amid staunch endeavor by the United States and other Western states on international levels in favor of its non-commitment to the accord.

MG