Egypt criticizes Israel's policy of nuclear 'ambiguity'
Egypt, Politics, 4/26/2000

Egypt's permanent delegate to the United Nations Ahmed Abul-Ghiet said yesterday that the Middle East did not need a US-proposed anti-nuclear missile defense system but rather an international drive to free the region from nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

"Concentration should not be on installing a defense system against nuclear missiles as proposed by the US but rather to free the region from weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, as Egypt has been demanding," said Abul-Ghiet.

"President Hosni Mubarak has launched an initiative to dismantle all weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East," Abul-Ghiet added in an interview with the BBC Radio.

"All countries in the Middle East have joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) except Israel. Therefore, no country in the region (except Israel) is threatening to launch nuclear strikes," expounded Abul- Ghiet, who is currently participating in a UN gathering on the NPT.

He pointed at pan-Arab demand, presented in 1995, urging Israel to endorse the NPT and open its nuclear facilities to international inspection by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"Arabs do not see the current NPT conference as ceremonial but as a conference with certain goals. All parties insist on making this conference successful," he said.

He added that Egypt and six other countries formed a new grouping named 'New Agenda Coalition' which demands nuclear states to move faster by renouncing the first use of nuclear weapons, separating warheads from missiles and taking missiles off high alert. The group includes Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, New Zealand, Ireland and Sweden.

Previous Stories:
  Mubarak's initiative on Middle East free of nuclear weapons   (4/24/2000)
  El-Feki: Changing Arab League charter a necessity for the future   (4/20/2000)
  Egypt participates in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Conference   (4/20/2000)

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