US is ‘the world’s only atomic criminal’: Iran

TEHRAN - The United States is the “world’s only atomic criminal,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said in a message delivered on his behalf at an international conference here.

“Only the US government has committed an atomic crime. The world’s only atomic criminal lies and presents itself as being against nuclear weapons proliferation, while it has not taken any serious measures in this regard,” The Telegraph quoted Khamenei, as saying.

Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the establishment of a new international weapons regime that would be independent of Western political interference.

He also said that the right to veto, given to five so-called super powers in the United Nations (US, UK, China, Russia and France) is undemocratic, inhumane and unfair, and should either be annulled, or steps should be initiated to allow some countries from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe to also have the right to veto.

Ahmadinejad alleged that America had used “bombs made from nuclear waste” during the Iraq war and that people were still suffering as a result.

Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s chief nuclear official, made clear that the principal target of the gathering was to target America.

The Iranian conference is being hosted as a counter to the nuclear security summit called by President Barack Obama earlier this week.

Iran condemned the 47-nation disarmament summit in Washington on the grounds that the United States holds one of the world’s largest arsenals of nuclear weapons.

Iranian officials boasted that 55 nations had agreed to travel to Iran - more than the number that assembled in Washington - but conceded that the ash cloud over Europe had prevent many delegates from reaching its capital. (ANI)