U.S. and other Western countries armed dictators with WMDs: Iranian envoy

TEHRAN, Nov. 24 (MNA) – Iran's envoy to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Kazem Gharibabadi, said that Iran is the biggest victim of weapons of mass destruction which have been provided to dictators by the United States and other Western countries. Gharibabadi made the remarks during an interview in reference to an allegation by a U.S. official that Iran may have sent special artillery shells for chemical weapons to Libya. The brilliant and glorious history of Iran in the fight against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction makes U.S. claims meaningless, said Gharibabadi, who is also Iran’s ambassador to the Netherlands. Commenting on the official report of the OPCW which indicates that 15 countries, including the United States and some other Western countries, facilitated the chemical weapons program of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hossein, he said, "The root of arming dictators with weapons of mass destruction must be sought in the U.S. and its Western allies." "The United States and Western countries have brought chemical weapons and facilities of Libya under control after they began a military intervention in this country lest facts are revealed," he stated. Elsewhere in his remarks, Ambassador Gharibabadi said according to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) all owners of chemical weapons are obliged to destroy their chemical weapons by April 29, 2012, but the United States, as the largest owner of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, has officially announced that it will retain thousand tons of its chemical weapons and will destroy them in a length of more than 10 years. So, the country has violated the CWC and its failure to abide by the convention would be addressed in the 16th annual general assembly of the OPCW which will open on November 28, 2011, he explained.