The Iranian government has declared its "innocence" while the international community and the UN ponder sanctions against Pyongyang and Teheran.
Teheran (AsiaNews/Agencies) The Islamic Republic of Iran is "hostile to the proliferation of nuclear weapons" and the "super powers" should set a good example and "start destroying them", an Iranian government spokesman said today. Commenting on the North Korean crisis to the government news agency IRNA, Gholamhossein Elham said Iran was "hostile to the production and use of nuclear weapons of destruction."
Foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said yesterday that "Iran wants a world free of nuclear weapons".
Iran's pacific declarations were made just as the world is wondering how to tackle not only North Korean but also Iranian nuclear escalation. For some time, Teheran has been under pressure from the international community, which is calling for a halt to its uranium enrichment activities. On 6 October, the "5+1" group (USA, Great Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany) met in London to discuss possible sanctions against Teheran after it refused to submit to a UN demand to stop its uranium enrichment activities.
Teheran claims its enrichment activities have solely peaceful ends, but these activities are considered to be a premise to the production of atomic weapons.
Gholamhossein Elham said: "To fight against nuclear weapons, the best solution is for super powers to start destroying them themselves... if the super powers were serious about this, the Islamic Republic would use all means at its disposal to help."