Heidar Ali Balouji, Iran's Representative to the United Nations General Assembly First Committee, highlighted, during the 77th session of the committee's meeting on disarmament and international security in New York, that Iran's stance on the matter has been consistent.

Outlining Iran's consistent stance on disarmament and international security, Balouji stated that new and unconventional security threats have weakened global peace and degraded global security.

According to Press TV, he cautioned that rising tensions and the nuclear arms race could trigger a global cold war or even a nuclear one.

Balouji called attention to the rise in military spending and the all-time high in military transfers in 2021 and said that, in comparison to other nations, the US has the largest military spending and nuclear arsenal.

He said that the failure of international nuclear weapons control treaties and the regrettable failure of two consecutive Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conferences prevented the implementation of the legally obligatory commitments of nuclear powers under Article VI of the NPT.

He cautioned that nuclear powers are building up their arsenals.

The Iranian envoy stressed that the international community must hold nuclear-weapon states accountable for their non-compliance with the NPT as well as the deterioration of the arms control framework.

The Israeli government, according to Balouji, is equipped with weapons of mass destruction, has targeted nuclear sites physically and virtually, through cyber attacks, and has also assassinated scientists.

He pointed out that "Israel" has obstructed regional nuclear disarmament and urged the international community to exert pressure on "Israel" to ratify the NPT as a non-nuclear-weapon party and submit its operations to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

“We believe that nuclear weapons are not deterrents, but tools of mass murder,” he said.

The Iranian envoy went on to say that total nuclear abolition might be a straightforward way to achieve nuclear disarmament. Balouji also stressed the need to reject the use of chemical and biological weapons and adhere to all relevant accords.

He stated that the US had doubts about the 1925 Geneva Protocol and opposed the strengthening of and the abolition of chemical weapons under the Biological Weapons Convention.

He referred to two regrettable instances of irresponsible action by the US and the Israeli regime and expressed Iran's opposition to hasty decisions or unilateral interpretations, stressing that cyberspace and outer space could only be used for peaceful purposes.

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