Iran says US threatens int'l security with chemical weapons

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told Trend on April 30 that the United States chemical weapons are a real threat against international security.

Russia destroyed about 25,000 metric tons of its chemical weapons on April 29, the day when the International Chemical Weapons Convention came into force in 1997, Ria Novsti reported.

Today, 188 states of the UN's 195 members have signed an agreement and committed to completely destroying their chemical weapon stockpile by April 29, 2012.

However, according the Ria Novsti report, Russia and the United States, who have 40,000 and 27,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, respectively, said they were behind schedule and the deadline was postponed until December 31, 2015.

Mehmanparast said that Iran as a distinguished victim of chemical weapons usage during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) has decided to seriously fight against the existence of chemical weapon stockpiles and hopes for a world without any mass destruction weapons including nuclear, chemical and biological.

The countries that officially admitted to having chemical weapons are Albania, Libya, Iraq, India, Russia, the United States and South Korea.

The U.S. and Russia have announced they already destroyed 90 and 62 per cent of their chemical weapon stockpiles respectively.

According to the reports, the chemical weapon holders in the world have been destroyed by only 73 per cent of their stockpiles since 1997.

"The major chemical weapon holders in the world have not committed their obligations and they are threatening international security," Mehmanparst added.


/Trend/