BBC: Shaaban: Syria ready for freeing the whole region from weapons of mass destruction

"Syria is ready to any initiative for negotiations that frees the whole region from weapons of mass destruction," Syria's Expatriates Minister, Buthaina Shaaban underlined on Friday, pointing out that Syria's is commited to cooperation with all parties to reach a basic solution.

In an interview with the BBC, the minister said that what happened in Iraq and the Libya must focus world attention towards the big nuclear arsenal in the region possessed by Israel.

She touched upon the Syrian Initiative, that was submitted to the UN Security Council, concerning freeing the region from mass destructive weapons, pointing that "What Syria wants is the just and comprehensive peace in the region, and resumption the negotiations from the point it stopped at.'"

"Syria signed the Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, NPT, but Israel didn't sign it," Shaaban said, adding "inspite of that, Israel was not asked once to abandon the mass destruction weapons." She stressed that the Middle East region can be transformed into a region free from weapons of mass destruction, if Israel was made to ovserve international law and not be above it."

Shaaban expressed the hope that the U.S. strategy in the region will be a balanced and just, in order to achieve a just and comprehensive peace among all peoples of the region.