Saudi Arabia has stressed that the establishment of a zone free of nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East is the international community’s collective responsibility.
It called on the international community, the United Nations and Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to fulfill their obligations to establish this zone “in order to promote peace, security and stability in the Middle East in particular and the world in general.”
This came during a speech before the third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT, which was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The speech was delivered by Prince Saud bin Badr bin Saud, member of the Saudi delegation to the conference.
The Prince explained the delegation supports the statements made by the Arab Group and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries.
He noted that the establishment of the nuclear weapon free zone is one of the most important objectives of the NPT, especially in the Middle East.
Prince Saud also stressed that security and stability in any region couldn’t be reached by obtaining weapons of mass destruction.
“The second resolution on the Middle East is an integral part of the other resolutions that led to the adoption of the indefinite extension of the 1995 NPT,” he added.
He also expressed the Kingdom’s concern about the failure of nuclear powers to establish a specific time frame for the implementation of this resolution, which called for the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East.
The proposal by the UN Secretary General to hold a high-level meeting in support of the NPT one year ahead of the 2020 Review Conference marks an opportunity to reach arrangements based on which regional states freely establish a NWFZ in the Middle East, he stated.
Prince Saud said Saudi Arabia hopes the outcome of this preparatory session will have clear results that support the establishment of this conference.
“The Kingdom calls on the international community to pressure Israel, being the only party in the Middle East that hasn’t yet joined the NPT,” he noted, stressing the importance of subjecting all its nuclear facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement.
