The Holy See has welcomed Iran’s efforts to reduce or convert its nuclear facilities to peaceful purposes in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. In a statement delivered to the 59th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Monday, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, said the Vatican “values positively” Iran’s recent agreement with the European Union and the so-called ‘P5 plus 1’ group of nations because “it considers that the way to resolve disputes and difficulties should always be that of dialogue and negotiation.”
The Vatican’s foreign minister spoke of the IAEA’s important role in promoting sustainable and integral human development, using nuclear technologies for improving agriculture, pollution control, water management, nutrition and food safety, and infectious disease control. But he also insisted that “spending on nuclear weapons squanders the wealth of nations”, adding that “the dubious strategic rationales for maintaining and even strengthening” nations’ nuclear arsenals are “morally problematic.” Billions are wasted each year to develop and maintain stocks that will supposedly never be used, Archbishop Gallagher said, adding “How are these expenditures consistent with progress towards nuclear disarmament?”
Archbishop Gallagher said that while the Holy See has “no illusions about the challenges involved in achieving a world free of nuclear weapons,” nuclear powers must take more “concerted steps” to break the political deadlock over disarmament, in particular by facilitating the entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The Archbishop called for the “logic of fear and mistrust” to be replaced by a new global ethic of responsibility, solidarity and cooperative security to ensure that nuclear technology is only used for peaceful purposes “and is no longer a sword of Damocles hanging over the earth.”
