The United States and Iran are clashing over Iran’s nuclear program as the review of the treaty aimed at preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons begins on Monday at the United Nations (UN). This confrontation is likely to repeat during this month-long meeting.
The stakes: Iran’s election as one of the 34 vice-presidents of the conference, where the 191 state parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons examine its implementation, as they do every five years since it entered into force in 1970.
Iran was a candidate of the “non-aligned movement”, which brings together 121 countries, mainly developing.
Tensions around the Iranian nuclear program escalated before the war in Iran, with President Donald Trump committing to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran has enriched uranium to a level close to that needed for the production of nuclear weapons, but Tehran insists that its program is exclusively for civilian purposes.
The meeting began as Iran proposed reopening the Strait of Hormuz if the United States lifted its blockade on Iranian navigation and ended the war, while postponing negotiations on the nuclear program.
Iran is a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which obliges it to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). However, Iran denied IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites bombed by the United States last June.
Christopher Yeaw, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, stated that despite possible differences in opinions on Iran’s ultimate intentions and how to manage its program, Iran has shown “disdain” for its commitments under the treaty.
“Instead of using this review conference to defend the integrity of the NPT and hold Iran accountable, we find Iran as vice president,” said Mr. Yeaw. “It’s more than shameful and undermines the credibility of this conference.”
The United States has received support from Australia and the United Arab Emirates. The United Kingdom, France, and Germany – signatories of the 2015 nuclear agreement to limit the Iranian nuclear program, which was withdrawn by Donald Trump in 2018 – have also expressed their “concern.”
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, Reza Najafi, called American allegations “unfounded and politically motivated,” expressing opposition to the presence of the United States as a vice-president of the review conference.
He stated that the United States is the only country using nuclear weapons and accused them of increasing their nuclear arsenal in violation of the treaty and hindering progress toward a Middle East free of nuclear weapons by supporting Israel.
According to Mr. Najafi, the attacks carried out by the United States and Israel twice within a year on Iranian nuclear facilities, described as a “serious violation of international law and a direct threat to the global non-proliferation regime,” are equally alarming.
The Russian Ambassador, Andrei Belousov, head of the Russian delegation to the conference, expressed regret over Iran being targeted and expressed hope that the criticisms and “politicization” emerging from the first day would not affect the outcome of the conference, which he hopes will be positive.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, as reported by the Russian news agency TASS. Russia has remained largely on the sidelines of the current conflict, even though the possibility of taking charge of Iran’s highly enriched uranium has been discussed.
Russia blocks agreement in latest review
During the last treaty review conference in August 2022 (postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Russia blocked the agreement on a final document due to its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and references to Moscow’s occupation of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and bombings of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
During the opening session on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged treaty parties to “come together and protect humanity from the serious threat of nuclear annihilation.”
For the first time in decades, he said, the number of nuclear warheads is increasing, and nuclear tests are being considered. He added that the pact’s commitments have not been fulfilled for too long.
He invited all countries to reaffirm their commitment to disarmament and non-proliferation, and, in the era of new technologies in artificial intelligence and quantum computing, to “ensure that, as long as nuclear weapons are not eliminated, humanity never loses control of their use.”
Under the treaty, the five original nuclear-weapon states – the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France – committed to negotiating the gradual elimination of their arsenals, and non-nuclear-weapon states promised not to acquire them in exchange for the guarantee of being able to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
