ESTABLISHMENT OF A NUCLEAR-WEAPON-FREE ZONE IN THE
REGION OF THE MIDDLE EAST
Letter dated 15 December 1995 from the Chargé d'affaires a.i.
of the Permanent Mission of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to the
United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General
I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a letter from His Excellency Mr. Omar Mustafa Muntasser, Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation.
I should be grateful if you would have this letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly under agenda item 66.
(Signed) Ali Sunni MUNTASSER
We have studied the reply received from the Israeli Government to your report entitled "Establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the region of the Middle East" and have found it to contain sophisms and unfounded accusations directed against the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. We should therefore like to respond with corrections to the sophisms and distortions of the truth that appear in the Israeli reply in document A/50/325/Add.1:
"Unfortunately, at this time, several regional States are still in a formal state of war with Israel. Moreover, large regional States such as Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya still refuse to foreswear war as a means of settling disputes and attempt to impede the peace process by means of terror, violent activities and subversion, directly or indirectly."
1. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and is bound by its provisions. It is also a party to a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and places all its nuclear power related facilities under Agency safeguards. The Zionist entity, on the other hand, persists in its refusal to become a party to the Treaty, to conclude any agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency or to place its nuclear installations under Agency safeguards, despite United Nations resolutions requesting all States to become parties to the Treaty and the report of the Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which emphasized the same issue.
2. The Israeli assertion that the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya refuses to foreswear war as a means of settling disputes is an empty claim completely unrelated to the truth, since the Jamahiriya constantly endeavours to resolve its disputes with other countries by peaceful means and through international channels. For example, we had recourse to the International Court of Justice with regard to disputes with our neighbours Tunisia, Chad and Malta and accepted its rulings without hesitation.
3. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya rejects the Israeli accusation that it is attempting to impede the peace process by means of terror, violent activities and subversion. The Jamahiriya rejects terrorism in all its forms, and particularly State terrorism, which is practised by the Zionist entity against the whole Palestinian people. With regard to the issue of peace in the Middle East, the Jamahiriya is in principle in favour of peace, but it should be a just and comprehensive peace which guarantees the Palestinian people its right to self-determination and to establish an independent State on all the Palestinian territory. There can be no peace in the region unless those fundamentals are taken into consideration, along the lines of what was done in South Africa.
4. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has supported from the outset the idea of the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the region of the Middle East and even demands that the region be free of all kinds of weapons of mass destruction. Similarly, it considers that linking the establishment of the zone with comprehensive peace, and in the Israeli manner, would in fact be a way of evading it, since the removal of nuclear weapons from the region is the cornerstone of peace. It is impossible to imagine a peace where one of the parties is in possession of such weapons. The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya therefore considers that the time has come for pressure to be put on the Zionist entity, in order to persuade it to become a party to the Treaty and to agree that its nuclear installations should be placed under Agency safeguards.
(Signed) Omar Mustafa MUNTASSER
General People's Committee for
Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation
