Iran's president on Saturday called for the formation of a new world body to oversee nuclear disarmament as Tehran opened a two-day summit on civilian nuclear energy.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his proposed organisation would provide a balance to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "An independent international group which plans and oversees nuclear disarmament and prevents proliferation should be set up," he said.
"This group should act in a way where all independent countries and governments could have a say and role in running the affairs of that group.
"Until now the presence and political domination of the agency has prevented them from carrying out their duties and has diverted the agency from performing its legal obligations."
The Iranian leader said the US should not be allowed to be on the IAEA's board of governors. "[Those who] possess, have used or threatened to use nuclear weapons [should] be suspended from the IAEA and its board of governors, especially the US which has used a weapon made of atomic waste in the Iraq war," he said.
Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader said the US is the one and only nuclear criminal that falsely claims to be fighting against the spread of nuclear weapons. Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior aide to Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, read the Leader's message to the Tehran conference.
"The one and only nuclear criminal of the world now falsely claims to be fighting the spread of nuclear weapons but has definitely not taken and will not take any serious action regarding the issue," read the message.
"There is only one government that has committed nuclear crime and that is the government of the US, which launched nuclear attacks against the innocent Japanese people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an inhumane asymmetrical war," it added.
"If the US claim of fighting the spread of nuclear weapons is not a lie, how can the Zionist regime manage to avoid accepting international regulations — in particular the NPT — and turn occupied Palestine into an arsenal loaded with nuclear weapons?" asked the Leader.
