Iran calls for nuclear disarmament

TEHRAN, March 29 (UPI) -- Iran calls for a global push for nuclear disarmament and urges Israel to come clean on its arsenal, a high-ranking Iranian parliamentarian said in Thailand.

Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabifard, the first deputy speaker of the Iranian Parliament, told delegates at a meeting for the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Thailand that his country favored nuclear disarmament, Iran's state-funded broadcaster Press TV reports.

"Iran strongly calls for nuclear disarmament in the world particularly in the Middle East and elimination of Israel's nuclear arsenal," he said.

Iran's recent effort to begin enriching uranium to 20 percent drew international criticism, with the United States calling for harsher sanctions against Iran because of fears the country is pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

The deputy leader, however, said his country would "continue its peaceful nuclear activities."

His comments follow a report during the weekend in The New York Times that cited anonymous Western intelligence officials as saying Iran was working on additional nuclear enrichment sites.

The Times said U.N. inspectors grew suspicious after Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told the Iranian Student News Agency in February that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered work to begin soon on two new plants "built inside mountains."