Egypt mobilizes for Israeli adherence to NPT
Egypt-Israel, Politics, 4/27/2000

The United States has agreed for the first time to allow the United Nations Conference on Reviewing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to set up a committee for tackling nuclear regional issues including Middle East nuclear problems, an Egyptian statement said.

Daniel Bleach, Director of the US Security Information Council said Washington has found itself in a stance in which it cannot defend itself regarding not putting Israeli nuclear policy for debate at the time when it presses India and Pakistan to sign the Treaty.

This new development comes in the wake of the intensive Arab and Egyptian pressures on big nuclear powers in the Conference which is currently in session in New York to force Israel to accede to the Treaty and to open its nuclear facilities before international inspection.

Egypt urged Israel to accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty without further delay and to place all its nuclear facilities under the safeguard regime of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"The message is crystal-clear in expressing the danger to the security of the Middle East inherent in the continuation of the status quo," Egypt's permanent delegate to the UN Ambassador Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said.

Aboul-Gheit was speaking at the 2000 Review Conference on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the first conference to review the progress made towards the implementation of the provisions of the Treaty since its indefinite extension in 1995.

"Most regrettably, nuclear weapons continue to proliferate, nuclear arsenals continue to be modernized, advanced nuclear programs continue to be outside the safeguards regime and certain states continue to resist the calls of the international community to adhere to the NPT and to place their nuclear activities under international inspection," Aboul-Gheit added.

"A frank and objective evaluation must be conducted of the extent to which the states, particularly the nuclear weapon states, have honored their commitments under the provisions of the NPT and the undertakings they have accepted in 1995," Aboul- Gheit said.

"This evaluation should detect the weaknesses and the way to deal with them in order to establish a sound approach to address the challenges faced by the Non-Proliferation States," Aboul- Gheit added.

"In an attempt to achieve the noble goal of nuclear disarmament, President Mubarak called in May 1998 for the convening of an international conference to consider rendering the world free from all weapons of mass destruction within a specified period of time," Aboul-Gheit stressed.

"Egypt has repeatedly stressed that the continued absence of effective legally binding international security assurances to protect the Non-Nuclear Weapons States against the dangers of the weapons they voluntarily renounced is a source of disappointment," Aboul-Gheit added.

"Regrettably, Israel remains the only state in the region that has not responded to the calls of the resolution to accede to the Treaty," Aboul-Gheit said.

"Over the last years, Egypt has put forward many proposals on steps to be taken by Israel and the States in the region with a view to achieving practical progress towards ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction," Aboul-Gheit added.

"Among those steps are the initiation of regional negotiations on the tenants of the establishment of a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East, the declaration by the states in the region of their commitment to adhere to the international instruments on the non-proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons within a specified timetable and the adoption by Israel and the States of the region of confidence-building measures in the nuclear field," Aboul-Gheit said.

"Progress will be made towards the application of the safeguards of the IAEA on all nuclear facilities in the region and towards the establishment of an inventory of the fissile material produced by states of the region and their control," Aboul-Gheit expounded.

"Egypt has put these ideas in the hope of initiating a positive dialogue that would contribute to breaking the current impasse, and reaffirming the obligations of Israel to take practical steps for the negotiation on rendering the region free from nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction," Aboul-Gheit further said.

"It has been our hope to pave the way for a new understanding among the states of the region on dealing with the questions of regional security in the Middle East and on the future of the region," Aboul-Gheit added.

"An understanding that would strengthen the security of the region and its states and would dispel the doubts about the Israeli nuclear activity," Aboul-Gheit noted.

"Thus, we would avoid a regional arms race with all its attendant dangers. Unfortunately, Israel did not respond to any of these endeavors," Aboul-Gheit said.

Rejecting the continued arms imbalance in the Middle East, Aboul Gheit said, "This imbalance cannot be accepted neither can it last. The NPT cannot have any credibility with the states of the region as long as one state is exempted from its provisions."

"Israel must accept the commitments which its neighbors in the region have accepted in the field of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons," Aboul-Gheit said.

Looking back to 1995, Aboul-Gheit said that the uniqueness of the situation in the Middle East region as acknowledged by the 1995 Review Conference, must be considered.

In 1995, the acknowledgement led to the adoption of a resolution on that region alone in recognition of the dangers inherent in the continuation of the status quo.

"The message of the 2000 Review Conference must be unequivocal in its demand that Israel accede to the Treaty without further delay and that it place all its nuclear facilities under the safeguards regime of the IAEA," the Egyptian diplomat said.

On the issue of universality, which he said the NPT failed to achieve, he called for the need to achieve it at the regional and international levels alike.

Egypt and other states in the region believe that the requirements of security and stability in the region make it necessary for the assessment of the progress achieved towards the universality of the Treaty, including at the regional level Israel's adherence to the Treaty, to run parallel to, if not precede, the verification of states parties in compliance with the provisions of the Treaty.

"Consideration must also be given to the responsibility of the nuclear states and in particular the states depositories of the Treaty that have co-sponsored the resolution on the Middle East in 1995 for its implementation and the realization of all its objectives in full," Aboul-Gheit said.

"The outcome of the 1995 Conference must be preserved and must not be opened to negotiation," Aboul-Gheit added.

"The current international climate affords genuine opportunities to arrive at long-term measures to achieve nuclear disarmament, " Aboul-Gheit concluded.

Previous Stories:
  Egypt criticizes Israel's policy of nuclear 'ambiguity'   (4/26/2000)
  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)

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