Washington Nuclear Test Disregards Int’l Public Opinion Will

Tehran, Dec 8, IRNA – Spokesman of Foreign Ministry Ramin Mehmanparast has said the US recent nuclear test was a clear example of disregarding the serious demand of the world public opinion for full global disarmament. Condemning carrying out of a nuclear test in Nevada last week, he said the move endangered the global peace and showed Washington’s hypocritical set of double standards regarding the nuclear issue. Mehmanparast also criticized the US for repeated cases of violation of international commitments in the field of chemical weapons disarmament. Referring to Washington’s mounting pressures to cancel an international conference on a nuclear-free Middle East, the spokesman said the Nevada test was in fact the continuation of US policy of relying on weapons of mass destruction. As one of the victims of the weapons of mass destruction, Iran would firmly pursue fulfilling global disarmament as well as full restoration of international peace as instructed by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mehmanparast stressed. According to US National Nuclear Security Administration officials said the Nevada National Security Site had successfully detonated plutonium in a deep shaft Wednesday to test the safety and effectiveness of US nuclear weapons. The Pollux subcritical experiment involved a tiny sample of plutonium bomb material. Subcritical nuclear experiments have been conducted in the US since 1997. International inspectors were not allowed to witness the experiment, as Washington has prevented access to its test site since the late 1990s. Wednesday's test was the 27th American "subcritical experiment" since full-scale nuclear weapons tests were halted in 1992./end