Iranian leader Hasan Rouhani has said that Israel must place its alleged nuclear arms under international control. He was speaking at a UN nuclear disarmament conference ahead of a landmark meeting between foreign ministers from Iran and Western nations, according to AFP.
AFP reports that the meeting will include Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Mohammad Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry and ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia. This historic meeting will be the highest level meeting between officials from Iran and US since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Rouhani was speaking his capacity as the current leader of the Non-Aligned Movement. In the course of his speech, he highlighted the failure of attempts to organize a Middle East nuclear free zone.
"Israel, the only non-party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in this region, should join thereto without any further delay," Rouhani told the meeting according to AFP.
Iran’s nuclear program has placed it at odds with the international community. Major Western powers such as America are not convinced that Iran’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
"No nation should possess nuclear weapons, since there are no right hands for these wrong weapons," Rouhani told the audience at the UN conference.
These remarks follow Rouhani’s comment from earlier in the week, when the Iranian leader said that he believed that a nuclear deal was possible “in a matter of months.”
