Mousavian, Hossein

Abstract
Serious efforts to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East would help Iran become more forthcoming in resolving questions about its own nuclear programme.
The United States has launched, in effect, an economic, political, cyber and covert war with Iran. American–Iranian relations could reach a turning point within a year. Without substantial progress on the diplomatic front, the chance for a unilateral Israeli or a joint US–Israeli military campaign aimed at destroying the Iranian nuclear programme could become a probability. Any attempt to reorient the current diplomatic trajectory will require a better understanding of the dispute between Tehran and Washington over nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
As the Head of the Foreign Relations Committee of Iran’s National Security Council for eight years (1997–2005), I am fully convinced that the strengthening and universalisation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the establishment of a zone free from WMD in the Middle East (and indeed the elimination of such weapons altogether) are compatible with Iran’s security doctrine. This position has important strategic and religious underpinnings.
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