UNITED NATIONS, May 28: Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Javad Zarif said on Friday that US threat to Iran’s nuclear programme were a “smoke screen to divert attention from its violations” that included a US willingness “to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states.”

Talking to reporters following the failure of Nuclear Non-Proliferation review conference here Mr Zarif said the United States never intended to scrap its nuclear arsenal, despite promising to eventually disarm when it signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the landmark arms control pact.

Iran’s chief delegate asserted that Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, was the threat to the Middle East region. “There is unanimity on the threat that is posed not only by Israeli nuclear weapons but by its aggressive policy”, he said. “Israel is the threat to the region,” he said. “It is one of the great ironies of our age that a country outside the framework of legality in the area of non-proliferation is one of the countries that is the most active participants against Iran,” he said.

In his address to the delegates at the NPT conference earlier Mr Zarif said the greatest threat to global security was from the countries that already have nuclear weapons.