UNITED NATIONS — The United States opposed Iran's election as a vice president of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference at the United Nations, clashing with Tehran over its nuclear program. Iran was elected as one of 34 vice presidents of the conference as a candidate of the nonaligned movement, which is made up of 121 mainly developing countries. The review conference brings together 191 parties to the treaty to review its implementation every five years since the treaty took effect in 1970.

"Rather than choosing to use this review conference to defend the integrity of the NPT and call Iran to account, we instead elect Iran a vice president," said Christopher Yeaw, U.S. assistant secretary of state for arms control and nonproliferation. "It is beyond shameful and an embarrassment to the credibility of this conference."

The United States was backed by Australia and the United Arab Emirates in opposing Iran's election. The United Kingdom, France and Germany expressed concern about the outcome. Iran is a party to the treaty, which requires cooperation with the United Nations nuclear agency, and Tehran insists its nuclear program is only for civilian purposes. Iran has not given inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency access to nuclear sites that were bombed by the U.S. last June.

Reza Najafi, Iran's ambassador to the U.N. in Vienna, called U.S. allegations about Iran's nuclear program baseless and politically motivated and declared Iran's opposition to the U.S. serving as a vice president of the review conference. He said the U.S. was the only country to use nuclear weapons and accused it of expanding its nuclear arsenal in violation of the treaty. Najafi said the U.S. obstructed progress toward a Middle East free of nuclear weapons by supporting Israel and that U.S. and Israeli attacks twice in less than a year on Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities violated international law and assaulted the integrity of the global nonproliferation regime.

A Russian diplomat objected to singling out Iran and expressed hope that the criticism and politicization of the conference would not affect its successful outcome. Russia has stayed out of the latest conflict while a possibility has been floated for Russia to take in Iran's highly enriched uranium.

President Donald Trump vowed to ensure Iran cannot build an atomic weapon. The U.S. withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in 2018. Iran has enriched uranium to near weapons-grade levels.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged all countries to recommit to disarmament and nonproliferation. He said that for the first time in decades, the number of nuclear warheads is rising and that nuclear testing is on the table, and that the treaty's commitments have long remained unfulfilled.

The last treaty review conference was held in August 2022 after a one-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that conference, Russia blocked agreement on a final document over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and blocked references to its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and shelling at Europe's largest nuclear power facility.