TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged Japan and Iran to jointly lead global efforts to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including nuclear, chemical, and biological arms. 
In an opinion piece published in The Asahi Shimbun ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, Araghchi condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s comparison of recent U.S. actions against Iran to the 1945 bombings. Highlighting Iran’s own suffering from chemical weapons during the 1980s Iraq war, he described the bombings as a stark reminder of nuclear devastation and called for strengthened peace and disarmament advocacy.