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

Official Records

General Assembly

Fifty-seventh session 

First Committee

8th meeting

Wednesday, 9 October 2002, 3 p.m. 

New York

    The meeting was called to order at 3.05 p.m.

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

General debate on all disarmament and international security agenda items 

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  Mr. Ben Youssef (Tunisia) (spoke in French ): …

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  With regard to the Middle East, it is one of the tensest areas because of the refusal of Israel, a nuclear-weapon State, to join the NPT and to place all its nuclear installations under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. Many appeals from other States in the region, General Assembly resolutions on this issue, and States Parties to the NPT at the Preparatory Committee meeting for the 2005 Review Conference, have called upon Israel to do this. This obstinate conduct is an obstacle to disarmament and to the establishment of lasting peace in that region and can be seen in the unbridled militarism of Tel Aviv. Given such a threat, it is not reasonable today for us to base ourselves on a policy of two weights and two measures. It is unfortunate that the international community is swooping down on one country or another and suspecting it of holding weapons of mass destruction whereas another country, in this instance Israel, has an entire panoply of such weapons without even being looked at or inspected. We appeal to the international community and to the influential Powers to take the necessary steps to compel Israel to respect its international obligations.

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 Mr. Aldouri (Iraq) (spoke in Arabic ): …

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  Before I conclude, I must point out that the world today is trying to eradicate all nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction and that the Middle East is going through a period of instability because of the Zionist nuclear threat, since that entity refuses international appeals made to it to accede to the NPT and to submit its nuclear facilities to IAEA comprehensive safeguards. In fact, Israel attacked the credibility of the NPT when it attacked Iraqi nuclear facilities in 1981. That aggression was condemned by Security Council resolution 487 (1981) which called, unprecedentedly, for the Zionist entity to subject its nuclear facilities to IAEA comprehensive safeguards.

  Despite that, the Zionist entity continues to stockpile all forms of traditional weapons and weapons of mass destruction and refuses to comply with all resolutions issued by the United Nations or the IAEA and continues its repressive actions against the Palestinian people who are trying to gain their rights and freedom and to get rid of the hateful occupation. Iraq thus emphasizes the fact that we should implement fully paragraph 14 of Security Council resolution 687 (1991), which provides for the establishment of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.

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 Mr. Al Khalifa (Bahrain): …

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  As a part of the Middle East region, my country attaches great importance to the situation there. Israel persists in its refusal to heed all the resolutions and the calls for rendering the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction. It continues to reject any efforts made to that end. It is the only State in the region that refuses to place its nuclear facilities under the safeguards regime of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This intransigence cannot be in the interests of the region as a whole. The number of weapons of mass destruction possessed by Israel far exceeds its so-called defensive needs. Israel employs all sorts of conventional weapons against unarmed civilians, under the pretext of combating what it calls terrorism, but which is what we call legitimate self-defence and a legitimate struggle against military occupation.

  It is our hope that this impartial world Organization will put an end to the war crimes perpetrated against the Palestinian people who are struggling for the restoration of their rights. We hope that the Organization will apply its resolutions equally to all States, without double standards. We call for the implementation of paragraph 14 of Security Council resolution 687 (1991), which calls for the establishment of a zone free from weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.

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    The meeting rose at 5.40 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.