Iran urges int'l bodies to counter CWs
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:37:37

Iran has condemned proliferation of chemical weapons, calling on the international community to dismantle all such weapons.

Countries which are signatories to Chemical Weapons Convention ignore the consequences of stockpiling chemical weapons since they themselves possess such weapons, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told Press TV on the sidelines of the International Seminar on the Consequences of the Use of Chemical Weapons against Iran underway in Tehran.

Mottaki added the convention calls on the signatories to dismantle their chemical weapons by 2012 which these countries find difficult to do abide by.

The foreign minister also called on the UN Security Council, NGOs and media to launch a real attack against chemical weapons.

Mottaki reiterated Iran's proposal for the establishment of a fact-finding committee to legally prosecute those countries that supplied former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons in its war against Iran during the 1980s, adding this was a step toward helping realize justice.

Iran had already proposed to the UN to form a committee for the follow-up of crimes committed toward Iranian civilians by Iraq through the use of chemical weapons.

Tehran is hosting the two-day International Seminar on the Consequences of the Use of Chemical Weapons against Iran and 22 foreign attendees from eight countries including two American university professors are present at the event. The seminar opened in Tehran on Monday.