WASHINGTON, Sept 10: Former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami has urged the US to eliminate nuclear arsenals of Israel, India and Pakistan before asking Iran to give up its nuclear programme.

Asked whether there is a way out of the current crisis with the US accusing Iran of trying to build a nuclear weapon, Mr Khatami told Time magazine that the region had three states possessing hundreds of warheads with Israel having the biggest arsenal.

“The biggest (arsenal) is (of) Israel. And then India and Pakistan. If there are serious concerns about nuclear weapons, we should start by eliminating those that already exist,” he maintained.

“The US does not display any sensitivity whatsoever to these issues, to these nuclear weapons. None of the three have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but Iran has,” he said.

Mr Khatami said Iran had the right to have access to nuclear energy. “And we are ready to give every guarantee that we would use this for peaceful purposes. Our leader has issued a decree prohibiting the production and the stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction.”

He warned the US and Israel against any strikes at Iran’s nuclear installations, saying it would jeopardise the region.

The former Iranian president blamed the US for making Iraq a “centre-stage of extremism and radicalism,” saying it was the American ‘conceit’ and ‘arrogance’ that had led to the current ‘mess in Iraq.’

He endorsed the two-state solution to achieve peace between Israel and Palestinians and called Holocaust a ‘historical fact.’

He rejected the suggestion that Iraq was witnessing a civil war and opposed the idea of partitioning the country in three parts – Shia, Sunni and Kurd.

Mr Khatami said he had never called the United States ‘Great Satan.’ “But I get really upset when Iran is called part of the axis of evil.”

Asked about denial of Holocaust by the Iranian president, Mr Khatami said: “I believe the Holocaust is the crime of Nazism. But it is possible that the Holocaust, which is an absolute fact, a historical fact, would be misused. The Holocaust should not be, in any way, an excuse for the suppression of Palestinian rights.”