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April 4th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda “There are international treaties on demining and we respect their content. There is the Ottawa Convention and we are mulling accession to that convention,” Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi told Press TV on the sidelines of an international conference on demining.
The international conference on demining kicked off at Tehran’s permanent International Fairgrounds on Tuesday along with an exhibition of modern demining methods and a demining robot competition.
The three-day event is attended by Iranian and foreign military and civilian officials whose main goal is to find practical solutions for removing landmines and decreasing injuries and deaths caused by them.
According to some participants, there are around 120-140 million mines planted worldwide and for every mine removed, six mines are planted.
Mohammad Hossein Amir-Ahmadi, head of the Iran Mine Action Center, said the center was established in 2006 and 85 of the people working for it have lost their lives demining since then.
Iran ranks high among countries infected with mines. During the war with Iraq, an area of 4.2 million hectares of the country’s western border regions was infected with mines of which 4.13 million hectares have been cleared so far.
The international event has been organized by the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Engineering and Passive Defense Department, Iran’s Mine Action Center, and Malek Ashtar University of Technology, which is affiliated to the Iranian Defense Ministry.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Red Crescent Society, Welfare Organization, the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, the Interior Ministry, Amir Kabir University of Technology, the Defense Industries Educational and Research Institute, and the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining are the main sponsors of the event.
According to the annual UN Portfolio of Mine Action Projects, mine action initiatives in 27 countries, territories, and peacekeeping missions cost USD 589 million in 2010.
UN data indicates that about 70 countries are affected by landmines or explosive remnants of war, which together claimed nearly 5,200 casualties around the world in 2009.
SS/AZ/HGH
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