Iran will complain to UN over Obama nuclear arms 'threat'

Iran will file a formal complaint with the United Nations against the USA after President Barack Obama excluded the country from a pledge not to use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them, its foreign ministry said yesterday.

Iran foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said President Obama's "implicit threat" to use nuclear weapons against Iran was a "threat to global peace and security".

Earlier yesterday, some 222 politicians of Iran's 290-seat parliament called on the government to file the complaint.

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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, also said President Obama's threatening language was proof that the USA could not be trusted.

President Obama announced America's new nuclear strategy on Tuesday, including a vow

not to use nuclear weapons against countries that did not have them. Iran, however,

was pointedly excepted from that pledge, along with North Korea, because Washington accuses them of not co-operating with the international community on non-proliferation standards.

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President Obama's new nuclear strategy turns the US focus away from the Cold War threats and instead aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states or terrorists.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the focus would now be on terror groups such as al-Qaida.