NPT’s fifty years of failure, plus proliferation of chemical weapons

Despite scientific and technological progress, hypocrisy rules the modern world, especially the policies of the big powers and their surrogates that continue to violate the safeguards determined to save humanity from the catastrophe of weapons of mass destruction.

Now we have a viewpoint that appeared in this regard in Iran’s English language daily Kayhan International titled: “NPT’s fifty years of failure, plus proliferation of chemical weapons.”

Kayhan International noted: “July 1 marked the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), simultaneously in Washington, London and Moscow, by sixty-two countries, including Iran, with the objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, promoting cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and furthering the goal of nuclear disarmament.

“The three pillars of NPT are thus non-proliferation, disarmament, and the right to peacefully use nuclear technology.

“These points have been specified in detail in the various articles of the NPT with member countries, especially nuclear-armed states, pledging not to transfer nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices to any state or in any way assist, encourage or induce any non-nuclear-weapon state in the manufacture or acquisition of a nuclear weapon.

 “Likewise, all parties have pledged to pursue good-faith negotiations on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race, to nuclear disarmament, and to general and complete disarmament.

“Signatories have also acknowledged the right of member states to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and to benefit from international cooperation in this area, in conformity with their non-proliferation obligations.

“Today the number of NPT signatories has increased to 190 countries, although four nuclear-armed states, that is, India, Pakistan, the illegal Zionist entity Israel, and North Korea are not member states – the first three have refused to sign NPT, while North Korea, which was a signatory, left NPT because of US lawlessness.”

Kayhan International wrote: “The recurring question is that: What has the NPT achieved over the past half century?

“The answer is obvious: The NPT has failed in its objectives because of the violation of its fundamental principles by the big powers and their clients, who have politicized the whole issue and plunged the Planet into crisis.

“This is evident by the developing of new and more lethal nuclear weapons by the nuclear powers; their refusal to dismantle their doomsday arsenals; the assistance to Israel by the US and European powers to manufacture nuclear weapons; and the acute pressures on the Islamic Republic of Iran by the West, especially, Washington, against peaceful use of nuclear energy despite the attestation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the civilian nature of Iran’s atomic programme.

“Iran has the legal right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes and has constantly complied with its obligations under the NPT, as acknowledged by the overwhelming majority of world countries, and the repeated reaffirmation by the Non-Aligned Movement of Iran’s continued cooperation with the IAEA.

“Yet Tehran has been subjected to all sorts of pressures and threats by the US, mainly because of the repeated setbacks to Washington’s hegemonic goals in the region.

“Iranian scientists were assassinated by American and Zionist agents on allegation of a weapons-oriented programme, despite the fatwa of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, against acquisition, manufacture and use of all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical, and biological.”

Kayhan International pointed out: “There is no denying of the fact that Iran is the prime victim of WMD in view of the fact that over 100,000 Iranian troops and civilians were subjected in the 1980s by Saddam to chemical weapons supplied to him by Germany, France, and the US.

“It is thus clear that Iran is the victim of a manufactured crisis, which became fully evident by the recent US withdrawal, in violation of its commitments, from the 7-nation JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and Washington’s threats and imposition of illegal sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

“Without the least doubt, Iran’s nuclear energy programme is peaceful, and whatever accusations are being labeled against Tehran are nothing but fabrications by Israel and the United States.

“This means, the US attempts to deny Iran (an NPT signatory) civilian nuclear fuel-making technology, is nothing but the violation of the letter and spirit of the NPT, if not the destruction of the whole NPT regime.”

Kayhan International also called for urgent dismantling of the chemical-biological weapons arsenals of the big powers and their client regimes.

It said: “June 28 was the anniversary of a catastrophic day, not just in the annals of Iran, but in world history, since it was on this day in 1987, the western Iranian city of Sardasht saw the sudden appearance of Saddam’s warplanes in the sky and the dropping of chemical bombs on the unprotected and unprepared population that was far from any military installation.

“In a matter of few moments, 8,000 of the city’s 12,000 people were exposed to toxic gasses supplied by the US, Germany, Italy and France to the Ba’thist regime. Some 4,500 Iranian men, women, and children required immediate medical care, while 1,500 were hospitalized, and another 600, who were severely affected, had to be flown to Tehran. The other 3,000 were treated as outpatients and discharged. Many of these 3,000 former outpatients left the city for the villages and attempted to treat themselves, using traditional medicines, etc. These people do not have medical records of their exposure and continue to suffer till this day.

“It wasn’t the first instance of the use of internationally banned chemicals in war by Saddam’s repressive minority regime nor the last, since the tyrant who was an American ally in those days was allowed to freely indulge in such crimes against Iran.

“But what was the reaction of the UN and the international human rights organisations?

“The answer remains a permanent blot on the conscience of the modern world: A blind eye toward this crime against humanity and deafness to the repeated calls of the Islamic Republic to focus on the pathetic condition of the victims, because none could dare condemn a blue eyed boy of Washington.”

Kayhan International wrote: “Today, despite the passing of 31 years since this crime, and the belated drafting of several conventions, including the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which became effective in 1997 no concrete measures have been taken to save humanity from the dangers posed by the cowardly use of such torturous weapons.

“The Chemical Convention, whose full name is Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons, and which also calls for their destruction, is administered by the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

“The irony is that OPCW theoretically bans the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors, and it calls on countries possessing these weapons to dismantle and destroy them, but practically it cannot do anything, as is evident by the doomsday arsenals of the big powers, especially the most devilish of them all, the US.

“Moreover, the OPCW has to helplessly watch whenever US agents resort to the use of chemical weapons, such as the terrorists in Syria, who are free to use them against civilian populations and then lay the blame on the government of President Bashar al-Assad, since Washington does not like him.

“The UN, for its part, instead of being an impartial judge, resorts to hypocrisy by condemning without any shred of evidence the party or parties who are victims of the use of chemical weapons.”

Kayhan International said: “Now reports are rife that the US, which recently granted seven million dollars to a dubious group in Syria called ‘White Helmets’, which is a subsidiary of the notorious terrorist outfit the an-Nusra Front, is planning to use chemical weapons on unsuspecting Syrian civilians in areas outside the control of the Syrian government, in order to find a fresh pretext for demonizing President Assad and if possible resorting to military action against the government of Syria.

“There are also fears that the Saudi-Emirati invasion force in Yemen, which is bogged down around the port city of Hodeidah with rising casualties, despite being militarily backed by the US, the UK, France, and the Zionist entity, might use chemical weapons against the defenders and then blame the popular Ansarallah Movement for its own crime.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran as the prime victim of chemical weapons attack and other forms of western-backed terrorism strongly condemns the diabolical policies of the US, and calls on international bodies, if they are really sincere, to force Washington and its allies, including the illegal Zionist entity, to dismantle and destroy all stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

 “We in Iran still cannot forget the sufferings of the surviving victims of the chemical attacks of Saddam, who was supplied by German, French, Italian and American firms with thousands of tons of precursors of mustard gas, sarin, tabun, and other toxic gasses for use against the Islamic Republic during the 8-year US imposed war in the 1980s.”

AS/ME