CND - the first organisation to alert the UK public that Tony Blair was leading the UK to war with Iraq, is noticing a similar pattern against Iran. The language and attempts to ratchet up pressure by the UK government on Iran are exactly what the government did with Iraq.

CND has exposed the UK’s blatant hypocrisy over Iran and North Korea. The government, as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is committed to getting rid of its nuclear weapons, yet its policies are in direct contrast to the spirit and obligations of the treaty. The government is seeking hundreds of extra scientists to help ensure that new nuclear weapons can be designed in the future and to conduct joint research with the US. The UK is complicit in the US’s attempts to test nuclear weapons and to lower the threshold of the use of nuclear weapons – bringing the nightmare of their use in a ‘conventional’ war, a step closer.

Carol Naughton, CND Chair said “The government is throwing accusations and bullying Iran as a smoke-screen for its own failure to comply with the NPT. The way to nuclear elimination is through negotiation and implementation of International Treaties not through war.”

CND fundamentally opposes the possession of nuclear weapons by any state. CND calls on Iran and North Korea to make their nuclear programmes fully transparent to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to maintain their status as non-nuclear weapon state signatories to the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Carol Naughton called upon the government to sign up to an agreement of ‘no first use’. She said “Such a measure can bring back the doomsday clock a few minutes.”

Ends…//

Notes for Editors

1. CND – the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was formed in 1958 and has expert knowledge on all nuclear issues

2. The UK is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which states an ‘unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals’