{"id":213073,"date":"1999-10-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T20:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=213073"},"modified":"2019-03-12T20:33:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T20:33:08","slug":"auto-insert-213073","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-213073\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear proliferation in the Middle East &#8211; First Cttee debate &#8211; Press release (excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>WITHOUT NUCLEAR-TEST BAN, &#39;FLOODGATES&#39; TO NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION OPEN,<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>MYANMAR TELLS DISARMAMENT AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY COMMITTEE<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">General Debate Continues, with Focus on Need To Ratify<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Nuclear Testing in South Asia<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\/&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\" style=\"white-space:pre; font-size:smaller\">\t<\/span>AHMED ABOULGHEIT (Egypt) said &#8230; that since 1974 the First Committee and the General Assembly had been adopting annually a resolution on the establishment of a nuclear-weapon- free zone in the Middle East.&nbsp;&nbsp;Such zones had spread worldwide and numerous new initiatives had been launched.&nbsp;&nbsp;Regrettably, the case in the Middle East had remained stagnant.&nbsp;&nbsp;Despite&nbsp;&nbsp;the severe frustration over that issue, his country remained committed to the earliest establishment of such a zone in the region and, indeed, of a zone free from all weapons of mass destruction.&nbsp;&nbsp;In the Middle East, such a zone could be an essential confidence-building measure, leading to a just, comprehensive, stable and lasting peace in the Middle East.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Only one country in the region was widely suspected of possessing a significant arsenal of&nbsp;&nbsp;nuclear weapons; only one operated unsafeguarded nuclear installations and facilities; only<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">one had refused to join&nbsp;&nbsp;the NPT or even to discuss the nuclear issue.&nbsp;&nbsp;It was Israel &#8212; which had singled itself out in that regard.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\" style=\"white-space:pre; font-size:smaller\">\t<\/span>Nonetheless, he said the reaction of the international community to that dangerous&nbsp;&nbsp;and provocative situation had remained mitigating, at best.&nbsp;&nbsp;Double standards in the pursuit of nuclear non-proliferation were dangerous and counter-productive.&nbsp;&nbsp;The international community should clearly choose whether it was for or against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.&nbsp;&nbsp;There was no &quot;in between&quot; and no room for hypocrisy.&nbsp;&nbsp;He failed to understand how certain countries could fail to condemn and take certain action against an outlaw State.&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;&nbsp;arguments employed by&nbsp;&nbsp;Israel to justify its erroneous position against adherence to&nbsp;&nbsp;the NPT and the safeguarding of its nuclear facilities were pretexts to shield its nuclear&nbsp;&nbsp;policies, programmes and ambitions. <\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\/&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\" style=\"white-space:pre; font-size:smaller\">\t<\/span>MOHAMED AL-HASSAN (Oman) said his country was a peace-loving nation and, as such, had adhered to all multilateral treaties dealing with weapons of mass destruction, including the&nbsp;&nbsp;NPT, the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions, and the CTBT, which it just signed on&nbsp;&nbsp;23 September.&nbsp;&nbsp;The time had come for the First Committee to revitalize its work and change&nbsp;&nbsp;its orientation in terms of its agenda.&nbsp;&nbsp;The new millennium, which marked a historic turn in the history of mankind, had necessitated new thinking. <\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\" style=\"white-space:pre; font-size:smaller\">\t<\/span>He said that, in the Middle East, Israeli nuclear programmes remained a disturbing&nbsp;&nbsp;issue.&nbsp;&nbsp;Thus, he could not help but call on the Israeli Government to adhere, as soon as possible, to the NPT, and to place all its nuclear facilities&nbsp;&nbsp;under strict International&nbsp;&nbsp;Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.&nbsp;&nbsp;On the question of small arms, his country supported the convening of a conference&nbsp;&nbsp;in 2001, but preparations had to be thorough&nbsp;&nbsp;and take into account the views of many States.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\/&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">* *** *<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WITHOUT NUCLEAR-TEST BAN, &#39;FLOODGATES&#39; TO NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION OPEN, MYANMAR TELLS DISARMAMENT AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY COMMITTEE General Debate Continues, with Focus on Need To Ratify Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Nuclear Testing in South Asia \/&#8230; AHMED ABOULGHEIT (Egypt) said &#8230; that since 1974 the First Committee and the General Assembly had been adopting annually a resolution on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-213073\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[1365],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1773],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-213073","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-general-assembly","document-subject-arms-control-and-regional-security-issues","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/213073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/213073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=213073"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=213073"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=213073"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=213073"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=213073"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=213073"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=213073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}