Sanctions, threats of war cannot uphold NPT: Iran's UN envoy

Iran's Ambassador to the UN Gholam Ali Khoshrou says sanctions and threats of military aggression cannot uphold the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

In an address to the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Monday following its adoption of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Khoshrou said rights and obligations of parties to the NPT can only "go hand in hand."

"Obligations would be honored and these regimes, including the NPT, sustained only if rights could also be achievable. No threats of sanctions or war could help sustain the NPT in the long run," he stressed.  

"The solution that we arrived at is undoubtedly in the interests of strengthening the regime of nuclear non-proliferation in its entirety as it includes and recognizes the right of Iran to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Khoshrou added.

He said Resolution 2231 that the council adopted represents "a significant development and marks a fundamental shift" in the UNSC's handling of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program over the past decade.

“The JCPOA is the result of a series of extensive and collective efforts that sought, for close to two years, to give diplomacy a chance and end the resort to pressure, coercion and threat,” the Iranian ambassador said. 

“This fundamentally different approach, which was a departure from the path traveled during the preceding years, helped all of us hope for the best possible way out, put an end to an unnecessary crisis and accomplish a major achievement for all the parties involved and the whole international community."

“The resolution that was adopted and the JCPOA that was endorsed today provided also for the termination of the Security Council Resolution that unjustifiably placed sanctions on Iran for its efforts to exercise its rights.”

The sanctions imposed on Iran were grounded on nothing but “baseless and pure speculation and hearsay,” he said, noting nobody had ever presented any proof indicating that Iran’s program has been anything but peaceful.

“Looking up to the future, my government hopes that the JCPOA and Resolution 2231 herald a new chapter in relations between Iran and the council" and parties to the JCPOA, Khoshrou added. 

He stressed that Iran is committed to the fatwa of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, who has declared all weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons, to be “haram.”

“The Israeli regime, following its general policy to stoke tension in the region, has done whatever in its power to sabotage and defeat any effort towards resolving the standoff over Iran’s nuclear energy program,” the Iranian envoy said, adding that Israel considers peace as an “existential threat to itself.”

Reacting to earlier comments made by the US Ambassador Samantha Power, who had accused the Iranian government of destabilizing the region and terrorism, the Iranian representative said, “The country that invaded two countries in our region and created favorable ground for the growth of terrorism and extremism is not well-placed to raise such accusations against my country.”

Following marathon talks in the Austrian capital of Vienna on July 14, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries - the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – finalized the text of the JCPOA, which will put limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Earlier on Monday, the UN Security Council (UNSC) unanimously endorsed a draft resolution turning the JCPOA into international law.

All 15 members of the UNSC voted for the draft UN resolution in New York on Monday, setting the stage for the lifting of Security Council sanctions against Iran.

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