Iran convened a conference titled "International Disarmament and Non-proliferation: World Security without Weapons of Mass Destruction" on 17 and 18 April 2010 in Tehran. The theme of the conference was Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for No One. The conference resulted in Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for action toward the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
Background
The New START treaty was signed on 8 April 2010, in Prague by US president Barack Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. This treaty resumed the START process of reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the two nations, for the first time requiring verifiability between them. The conference was held just days after a Nuclear Security Summit was held in Washington, DC on 12–14 April over the security of "vulnerable nuclear material." This conference was viewed as a counterpoint to the Washington summit. Its intention was to prove Iran's national and political will for the eradication of nuclear weapons, where Iran said the chemical weapons convention determined such weapons should be destroyed but the United States had chosen to ignore it. In May 2010, the review conference for the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was held at United Nations headquarters in New York City. In May 2009, the EastWest Institute released a joint US-Russian Threat Assessment on Iran's Nuclear and Missile Potential. The report said there was no specific evidence that Iran was seeking the ability to attack Europe and that "it is indeed difficult to imagine the circumstances in which Iran would do so." It added that if Iran did pursue this capability, it would need six to eight years to develop a missile capable of carrying a 1,000 kilogram warhead 2,000 kilometers; and that Iran ending "IAEA containment and surveillance of the nuclear material and all installed cascades at the Fuel Enrichment Plan" might serve as an early warning of Iranian intentions. The report concluded that there was "no IRBM/ICBM threat from Iran and that such a threat, even if it were to emerge, is not imminent." Incoming Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano said he had not seen any evidence in IAEA official documents that Iran was seeking the ability to develop nuclear weapons.
Participants Experts and officials from about 60 countries were invited to the conference. As of 15 April only 35 countries had indicated they would send delegations, 24 of whom would be Foreign or Deputy Foreign Ministers. Many non-governmental organisations were also to be present.
The US was officially registered as a participant, but denied having been invited (see controversies).
Issues The conference was composed of three panels focusing on the following topics:
Disarmament challenges; International obligations of States for disarmament and non-proliferation and consequences of the continued existence of WMDs; Practical steps for the materialization of disarmament. Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said he had "stressed that nuclear energy must be for everybody. While [the Washington summit] discussed the protection of nuclear material, in this coming conference we will emphasise the necessity of disarmament."
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