Senior lawmaker reiterates necessity for dismantlement of all Weapons

Chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi voiced Tehran's steadfast opposition to the acquisition and possession of nuclear arms, and urged dismantlement of all nuclear weapons in the world. "The Islamic Republic of Iran seriously opposes nuclear bombs and believes that all nuclear weapons in the world should be dismantled," Boroujerdi said in a meeting with member of the South Korean parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Chung Moon Hu in Tehran on Monday. Meantime, he underlined that all signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), including Iran, are entitled to the right to make a peaceful use of the nuclear technology. Iran has repeatedly expressed its strong opposition to any production, possession or use of nuclear weapons, saying such arms have no place in the Islamic Republic's nuclear doctrine. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.