Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
New York, SANA- Syria has condemned the use of internationally banned white phosphorus by the Israeli occupation force in their repeated attacks against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, calling on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate Israel’s use of these weapons.
Syria’s remarks came in a statement by the Acting Chargé d’affaires of the Permanent Delegation of Syria to the United Nations, Dr. Al-Hakam Dandi at the 4th Session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction”.
Dandi renewed Syria’s its call on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assume its responsibilities, and take all measures to uncover the Israeli secretive military nuclear program, which constitutes a permanent threat to international peace and security.
“Our region has suffered for many decades from a state of instability as a result of the continued Israeli occupation of Arab lands and the occupation authorities’ continued violations of international law and international humanitarian law,” Dandi said.
The Syrian Diplomat added “Israel’s possession of enormous arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, with the support of its allies in the United States and other Western countries, has increased the serious threat to regional and international peace and security.”
“Syria condemns the occupation forces’ use of internationally banned white phosphorus in their repeated attacks against civilians in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, and calls on the OPCW to investigate Israel’s use of these weapons,” Dandi said.
Dundee stressed that the umbrella of protection provided by some Western countries, most notably the United States, contributed to “Israel” being alone in the Middle East region in possessing and developing weapons of mass destruction and refusing to subject its nuclear facilities to international supervision.
He noted that Syria was one of the first countries to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and signed a Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency. It also signed the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), joined the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), and fulfilled its relevant obligations.
“My country expresses its readiness to work seriously and openly with all delegations of countries participating in this conference, and looks forward to reaching a legally binding treaty to establish the free zone in the Middle East that guarantees security for the peoples of our region and the world,” the Syrian diplomat concluded his statement.
Manar Salameh/ Ruaa al-Jazaeri
