Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
New York, SANA – Syria’s Permanent Representative at the UN Bashar al-Jaafari said that Syria is looking forward to a comprehensive treaty for making the Middle East free of nuclear weapons, and that Israel and the United States are disregarding the international will to realize this goal, as their claims about nuclear non-proliferation in the region are merely political chatter.
This came at the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction held on Monday in New York, during which al-Jaafari noted that Syria was one of the first states to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which it joined in 1969.
Al-Jaafari said that Syria is looking forward to a comprehensive treaty for making the Middle East free of nuclear weapons, noting that Syria had participated actively in the various meetings and conferences for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament throughout the past decades, in addition to signing the convention for the prohibition of biological weapons in 1972 and joining the chemical weapons convention in 2013.
He also said that the absence of Israel – the only side that refuses to put its nuclear facilities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency – and the absence of the United States from the Conference sends a negative message to the international community, in which they show their disregard for the international will to make the Middle East a zone free of weapons of mass destruction, and this absence proves that their claims about nuclear non-proliferation in the region are merely political chatter that is removed from reality and lacks credibility.
Hazem Sabbagh
