hosted international disarmament conference concluded Sunday with a demand that Israel join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to assure a nuclear weapons-free Middle East. As the conference was ending Sunday, Iran staged an annual military parade where it displayed missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The forum, which Iran said was attended by representatives of 60 countries, gave Tehran a platform for challenging Washington's assertion that it wants to see a world without nuclear weapons and for defending its own nuclear program. It criticized what it called a double-standard by some nuclear powers that urge disarmament while ignoring the nuclear arsenal Israel is widely believed to possess. A nuclear weapons-free Middle East requires “the Zionist regime to join the NPT,” said the concluding statement of the conference read out by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. “The conference expressed its concerns about the continued existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction - nuclear arms in particular - as well as their application or threat to apply them,” the statement said. Also Sunday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presided over an annual army parade in the capital to demonstrate the fruits of a military industry that he said could deter any attack. “Today, our armed forces have so much power that no enemy will harbor evil thoughts about laying its hands on Iranian territory,” Ahmadinejad said. The US has been pressing for a new round of international sanctions against Iran after Tehran spurned Obama's offer for dialogue over its accelerated nuclear development.
