Russia Issues Stern Warning at NPT Review Conference: ‘US-Israeli Attack on Iran Strikes at the Letter and Spirit of the Treaty’

Kathmandu — Russia has sharply criticised the joint attack by the United States and Israel on Iran as “unprovoked, unjustified, and unlawful” at the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Reading an address by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the conference in New York, head of the Russian delegation and Ambassador-at-Large Andrei Belousov reaffirmed Russia’s commitment to upholding and strengthening the Treaty.

“The current state of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime gives cause for concern. The Treaty is under severe strain. The trend to instrumentalise the NPT for self-serving political purposes has once again found expression in the unprovoked, unjustified and unlawful aggression by Israel and the US against Iran, in which civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards have been subjected to multiple attacks,” Belousov stated. He described the attack on Iran as a joint assault on a good-faith Party to the Treaty by a state that blatantly disregards it and a depositary state, carried out under the pretext of false allegations.

The Russian envoy noted that the provocative and destructive actions of Western nuclear-weapon states continue to fuel the deterioration of the international security environment and strategic stability. He pointed out that the US has categorically rejected Russia’s initiative to preserve the legacy of the New START Treaty through voluntary self-restraints and has declared readiness to expand its nuclear arsenal and resume nuclear testing. Russia further accused the UK of enhancing its strategic nuclear capabilities and redeploying US nuclear weapons on its territory, and France of planning to increase its nuclear capabilities while drawing European non-nuclear states into “extended nuclear deterrence” frameworks.

Russia stated that it would continue to act in the most responsible and well-considered manner and remains open in the longer term to seeking equal, mutually acceptable, dialogue-based solutions that serve the core interests of all parties.