Nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Mideast – First Cttee debate – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly

Fifty-seventh session 

First Committee

19th meeting

Wednesday, 23 October 2002, 10 a.m. 

New York

  The meeting was called to order at 10.10 a.m.

Agenda items 57, 58 and 60 to 73 (continued)

Action on all draft resolutions submitted under all disarmament and international security agenda items

/…

 Mr. Atieh (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): My delegation supports the statement made by the representative of Kuwait on behalf of the League of Arab States.

  We declare our full support for the position of the States members of the League of Arab States with regard to transparency in armaments, as embodied in document A/55/299/Add.2 of 16 October 2000. The Syrian Arab Republic also affirms its full support for the global trend towards the establishment of an international community free from the use or threat of force, a world governed by the principles of justice, equity and peace.

  While affirming our readiness to participate in any international effort sincerely aimed at attaining that end, we wish to draw the First Committee's attention to the fact that the draft resolution entitled “Transparency in armaments”, contained in document A/C.1/57/L.37, does not take into account the specific situation of the Middle East, which is marked by the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. That conflict endures because Israel continues to occupy Arab territories and refuses to implement the relevant resolutions of the Security Council. Israel continues to possess the most sophisticated and deadliest of weapons. Moreover, it is capable of manufacturing and locally stockpiling sophisticated weapons, including nuclear weapons. All of this confirms the fact that the transparency which Israel claims to apply to armaments reflects only a small portion of its arsenal of sophisticated and deadly weapons.

  We therefore abstained in the voting on this draft resolution.

/…

 Mr. Goussous (Jordan): I would like to associate myself with the statement made by the representative of Kuwait, on behalf of the United Nations Member States belonging to the League of Arab States.

  Jordan has been a staunch supporter of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. We regard the Register as an indispensable mechanism for achieving transparency in armaments, which leads to confidence-building, especially in conflict-prone regions such as the Middle East. However, we believe that the Register will not be effective unless its scope is enlarged to include military holdings and procurement through national production, as well as weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons. We therefore regret the fact that the panel of governmental experts has failed to deal with this problem for the last ten years.

/…

   The meeting rose at 12.30 p.m.

This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room C-154A. Corrections will be issued after the end of the session in a consolidated corrigendum.