Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at the West for its double-standard policy on nuclear progress and disarmament, questioning why the western countries upgrade their own nuclear warheads and weapons, while pressurizing the other countries to suspend their peaceful nuclear programs.
According to a report in the Fars news agency, Ahmadinejad said that the West is against scientific and technological progress of Iran.
President Ahmadinejad made the remark in a press conference with Brazilian and international reporters, journalists, and photojournalists at the Riocentro Convention Center in Rio de Janeiro.
The questions, posed by the journalists, concerned the Iran-G5+1 talks, Iran’s stance on Syria, Brazil’s support for Iran’s nuclear program and establishment of a new world order.
“The West is against progress in Iran; nuclear weapons is a pretext to put pressures on Iran and stop Iranian nation’s progress,” Ahmadinejad said.
He said international approaches to nuclear issues is unjust and follows a double-standard because those who have nuclear weapons and threaten other nations, at the meantime claim to be against nuclear weapons.
“The countries that have nuclear arms today, used those arms on certain occasions today through threats, claiming they cannot have these weapons,” President said.
Ahmadinejad said, “We believe that nuclear energy, along with other forms of energy, should be accessible to all nations and is the right of all nations. But nowadays, it is monopolized by a few.”
Israel is believed to be the sole possessor of nuclear arms in the Middle East with over 200 ready-to-launch warheads in its stockpile and the western countries have kept mum on the regime’s atomic arsenals.
Countries of the region have always called Israel’s nuclear disarmament as the only obstacle to the materialization of a Middle-East free from atomic weapons.
The actual size and composition of Israel’s nuclear stockpile is uncertain, and is the subject of various estimates and reports but the US Intelligence Community estimated by the late 1990s that Israel possessed between 75-130 weapons, based on production estimates. Military observers believe that the figure has now risen to, at least, 400.
Israel does not recognize the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), posing a great threat to the region and the world.
“The people of the world are well aware about the discriminatory and inefficient behavior of the arrogant powers and these corrupt global powers, which are in minority, have adopted a style that is against the nations and their style is in their own interests,” Ahmadinejad added.
