TEHRAN, Iran — Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov has called for more confidence-building measures from Tehran to allay international concerns over its nuclear program.
Rybakov was speaking Saturday on the sidelines of a nuclear disarmament conference that appeared timed to be a counterweight to U.S. President Barack Obama's 47-nation summit in Washington last week to discuss nuclear security.
Obama did not invite Iran, which the U.S. fears is using a civilian nuclear program as cover for developing its weapons capability. Iran denies that and says its nuclear work is only for peaceful purposes, such as power generation.
"We need to reinforce, reinstall full confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program," Rybakov said on Iran's English-language Press TV.
Three sets of UN sanctions have failed to pressure Iran to stop its own uranium enrichment work, which it says is only for producing fuel for power stations. The technology is of international concern because it could give Iran a pathway to warhead production.
Iran's conference brought together representatives from 60 countries, including China, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey and France, as well as delegates from international bodies and non-governmental organizations, according to Iranian media.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and several other senior Iranian officials took turns at the podium to warn that U.S. nuclear policy was endangering the world and encouraging nations to consider withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the United States deceptively calls for nonproliferation while holding on to its own weapons and failing to confront Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear bombs.
"The deceptive policy by the sole nuclear offender, which falsely claims to be advocating the nonproliferation of nuclear arms while doing nothing substantive for this cause, will never succeed," Khamenei said.
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