General Assembly: High-level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament, General Debate
During United Nations nuclear disarmament talks Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said no nation should possess nuclear weapons, according to Al Arabiya news broadcaster. He called on Israel to join a non-nuclear treaty.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as a “cynical speech full of hypocrisy,” according to NBC News.
Netanyahu released a statement following Rouhani’s speech, saying “the international community must test Iran not by its words, but by its actions.”
Rouhani said Iran poses “absolutely no threat to the world.” He called economic sanctions against Iran as being “violent–pure and simple.”
While in New York for the talks, Rouhani has said he wants to reach a deal with world leaders on Iran’s nuclear program as soon as possible, within three to six months.
He told the Washington Post: “The only way forward is for a timeline to be inserted into the negotiations that is short. The shorter it is the more beneficial it is to everyone. If it’s three months that would be Iran’s choice, if it’s six months that’s still good. It’s a question of months, not years.”
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Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a Hiroshima memorial ceremony this year, he renewed his commitment to the goal of creating a world free of nuclear weapons. He said China’s nuclear armament is particularly worrying.
Currently, nine states have nuclear weapons, but the capability to build nuclear weapons is becoming more widespread, said Austria’s President Heinz Fischer. The nine states generally recognized to possess nuclear weapons include Russia, the United States, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea.
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