Mideast situation/Disarmament – Disarmament Commission debate – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly

Disarmament Commission

244th meeting

Tuesday, 10 April 2001, 10 a.m. 

New York

    The meeting was called to order at 10.15 a.m.

General exchange of views ( continued)

/…

 Mr. Bebars (Egypt) ( spoke in Arabic ): …

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  First I will touch on the topic of nuclear disarmament, which is the main priority of disarmament efforts, as expressed in the Final Document of the first special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament. That priority will continue to govern our work until we achieve the full elimination of nuclear weapons. Despite the fact that the title of the item on nuclear disarmament that we are discussing in the framework of the work of the Commission is so general, we are hopeful that this topic will be dealt with in the same spirit that prevailed in the course of the Sixth Review Conference on the Parties to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

 That spirit led to the adoption of a Final Document that contained comprehensive obligations on the part of the nuclear-weapon States with regard to achieving nuclear disarmament, in addition to emphasizing the specific nature of the situation in the Middle East. Nuclear armaments and other weapons of mass destruction pose a threat to humanity. Logic therefore dictates that international efforts should be intensified so as to pave the way for developing the necessary mechanisms to completely eliminate that danger — an international framework that should be commensurate with the scope of the threat.

  We therefore believe that the Conference on Disarmament must be activated, as it is the only negotiating mechanism on disarmament matters. The Disarmament Commission should also adopt clear-cut guidelines aimed at the complete elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. It should also work to achieve the universality of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the implementation by the five nuclear-weapon States of their obligations under article VI of the Treaty.

  Special regional efforts for nuclear disarmament constitute fundamental endeavours that complement international efforts for nuclear disarmament. These efforts are designed to fully eliminate nuclear weapons and free the world from their dangers. The States of our region, the Middle East, have committed themselves to achieving that lofty goal by acceding to the NPT. That represents a clear-cut renunciation of the nuclear option and a declaration of our intention to free our region from nuclear weapons. It also embodies our States’ commitment to moving these efforts from the regional to the universal level, with a view to freeing the world from nuclear weapons. Israel alone has impeded the efforts of the region by continuing to stand by its nuclear option and refusing to accede to the NPT and subject its nuclear facilities to the comprehensive safeguards regime of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Sixth NPT Review Conference was therefore compelled to express in its consensus Final Document the need for Israel to accede to the Treaty and to subject all of its nuclear facilities to the comprehensive safeguards regime of the Agency, with a view to achieving the aim of full accession to the Treaty in the Middle East.

  This was again reaffirmed by an overwhelming majority of 157 votes when the special resolution on the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, resolution 55/36, was adopted by the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth regular session. That resolution contained a new operative paragraph — paragraph 2 — which

   “Reaffirms the importance of Israel’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and placement of all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, in realizing the goal of universal adherence to the Treaty in the Middle East”.

  Egypt accords particular importance to the need to achieve the goals and respect the principles of nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East and throughout the world. It also understands that the threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East is a pressing issue that must be dealt with expeditiously. In this connection, we would like to highlight the efforts being made and the initiatives being taken by Egypt with a view to eliminating weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. Efforts made since 1974 include the introduction by Egypt of draft resolutions on the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, which have been adopted by the General Assembly by consensus since 1980. In addition, every year the General Assembly has adopted, by an overwhelming majority, a resolution aimed at ending nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. That resolution was further developed during the course of the fifty-fifth regular session of the General Assembly.

  Parallel with these efforts, in April 1990 President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak undertook a special initiative aimed at freeing the Middle East region from all weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems so as to eliminate the dangers of such weapons. This was a natural extension of Egypt’s initiative to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. In this connection, Egypt welcomed the proposal put forward by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to hold an international conference to consider ways of eliminating nuclear dangers. The General Assembly endorsed that proposal in adopting resolution 54/282.

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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-178. Corrections will be issued after the end of the session in a consolidated corrigendum.