The State of Qatar calls for the evacuation of the Middle East from weapons of mass destruction in a statement delivered by H.E. Sheikh Ali bin Jassim Al Thani to the Conference of the Preparatory Committee for the Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty
The State of Qatar hopes that the results of the recent historic summit between the leaders of South Korea and North Korea will open the door for communication between the peoples of the two countries and achieve lasting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the world at large.
H.E. Sheikh Ali bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatar's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and UN Organizations in Vienna, said in a statement at the second session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2003 NPT Conference in Geneva that the people of the Middle East desperately need to diplomatic initiatives and similar courageous decisions that restore hope for peaceful solutions to the intractable problems in the region, in order to foremost the dangers of the nuclear arms race by embarking on practical steps to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.
H.E. the ambassador said that the existence of one nuclear armed state in the Middle East makes regional stability almost impossible and leads to a nuclear arms race that seriously affects global security and stability. He added that the State of Qatar recognizes the importance of regional nuclear-weapon-free zones in the world to promote international standards of non-proliferation and disarmament, support international efforts to achieve peace and security, and encourage the establishment of such zones and give these efforts the necessary security guarantees.
The Qatari ambassador said that the danger of the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East is one of the main factors that plague the peoples of the region due to the ongoing unrest in the region, the persistence of the phenomenon of terrorism and the dangers posed by the possibility of weapons of mass destruction falling in the hands of terrorist groups, Which requires everyone to intensify international cooperation to spare the region and the world of dangers for which the NPT was created.
H.E. went on to say that the non-nuclear countries, including the countries of the region, have fulfilled their commitments to the NPT and have placed their nuclear facilities and programs under IAEA safeguards, but Israel is still the only country in the Middle East that has not acceded to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which require the international community to pressure on it to accede to the Treaty and to end the blackout and ambiguity of its nuclear program and to place all its nuclear facilities under the comprehensive safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as well as the programs of the countries of the region, such as the Arab Gulf States, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Iran.
H.E. also referred to the efforts exerted by the State of Qatar to implement its international obligations under the provisions of the NPT as the cornerstone of the non-proliferation regime and the achievement of complete and comprehensive nuclear disarmament, calling upon the parties to the Treaty, in particular the five nuclear Powers, to take steps during the Review Conference in 2020 to implement of the Middle East Resolution of the 1995 Conference and the Review Conferences of 2000 and 2010, as the evacuation of the Middle East region from nuclear weapons is one of the bases for the enhancement of international peace and security. Therefore, Beer 2020 is the convening of the postponed conference 2012 and the establishment of the region under the auspices and care and responsibility of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and representatives of the sponsors of the resolution of the 1995 Conference and remove all obstacles with the cooperation of the countries of the region.
H.E. considered that the continued existence of nuclear weapons without a clear horizon for their elimination and the continuing discriminatory nature of the implementation of the decisions of international non-proliferation organizations undermines the credibility and effectiveness of non-proliferation.
He stressed that: "We, as countries that are bound by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), have a great responsibility and are concerned with taking real steps towards nuclear disarmament, otherwise, our peoples aspiring to peace will not trust the Treaty, which requires the nuclear powers to expedite the elimination of their nuclear arsenals, and the establishment of guarantees from these countries not to use or threaten to use such weapons because this threatens the international peace and security system.
He called for the adoption of practical steps that would be the basis for implementing the content of the "nuclear nonproliferation regime in the world", stressing that this will only be achieved by all parties, including the nuclear powers, in their duties to maintain the universality of the treaty and achieve the highest achievement rates in nuclear disarmament.
At the end of the statement, H.E. stressed that the state of frustration of the peoples of the Middle East reached an unprecedented level due to repeated failure to implement the commitments to establish a weapons-free zone in the Middle East. We are now facing a defining moment in the history of the region and the world, and we hope that everyone will be at the level of responsibility.