TEHRAN – As the world prepares to mark 80 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Iran is calling on Japan to join forces in a new push to eliminate weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) once and for all.

In a heartfelt op-ed published in Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi drew parallels between the suffering of the two nations—Japan, the only country to endure nuclear attacks, and Iran, a victim of chemical warfare during the brutal Iran-Iraq War.

"No one understands the horrors of these weapons better than we do," Araghchi wrote. "Japan’s cities were erased in an instant. Our people still bear the scars of Saddam’s poison gas. If any nations have the moral authority to demand disarmament, it is us."

The United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945, instantly killing an estimated 140,000 and 74,000 people, respectively. Many more died in the following months and years from radiation sickness, burns, and cancers. Saddam Hussein’s regime, backed by Wester powers, repeatedly attacked Iranian soldiers and civilians with chemical weapons during its invasion of Iran in the 1980s, using mustard gas and nerve agents. One of the deadliest attacks occurred in Sardasht (1987), where Iraqi warplanes dropped chemical bombs on a residential area, killing 130 civilians and injuring thousands, many with permanent disabilities. Iran estimates over 100,000 victims of chemical attacks, with survivors still suffering from respiratory diseases, blindness, and cancers today.

Elsewhere in his op-ed, the minister didn’t hold back in condemning U.S. President Donald Trump, who recently compared US-Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "To equate our peaceful nuclear sites—monitored by international inspectors—with the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians is not just wrong. It’s an insult to the memory of every life lost," Araghchi said.

Araghchi served as Iran’s ambassador to Japan from 2008 to 2011 and is believed to maintain close ties with the country’s academic and media elites.