STORY: Iran rejects U.S. claims about its latest nuclear development
DATELINE: Oct. 3, 2023
LENGTH: 0:02:00
LOCATION: Tehran
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the press conference

STORYLINE:

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Monday rejected the U.S. government's anti-Tehran claims in its latest report on "Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD)."
   
"These are baseless claims. Iran is a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has signed the comprehensive safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and is implementing it," Kanaani said at a regular press conference in the Iranian capital Tehran.
   
Kanaani stressed that Iran has repeatedly announced that nuclear weapons have no place in its military and defense doctrine and his country is opposed to any use of such weapons.
   
He noted that Iran was the biggest victim of chemical weapons, particularly in the Iraq-Iran war from 1980 to 1988, when a number of Western states, including the United States, supported then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by supplying different types of chemical materials, equipment and weapons to his army.
   
Kanaani said the U.S. government fails to have any legitimacy to assess countries' commitment in this regard, citing reasons of its lack of commitment to obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and Biological Weapons Convention and creating "illegal labs" across the world.
   
In its 2023 report released Thursday, the U.S. Defense Department claimed "It is assessed that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program at this time, but has the capacity to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear device in less than two weeks."
   
It also accused Iran of "noncompliance with its CWC obligations."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Tehran.
(XHTV)