Bahrain urges nuclear weapons-free Middle East

New York

The Middle East has to be made a zone free of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Jamal Fares Alrowaiei said. He stressed the need to subject all nuclear facilities in the region to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and controls, noting the importance of acceding the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

He was speaking during the general debate session of the Committee on Disarmament and International Security of the UN General Assembly. Given the strategic importance of the Arab Gulf region at the global level, it is important for it to be free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. He pointed out IAEA’s concern on Iran exceeding the limits of the enriched uranium stockpile permitted under the nuclear agreement signed in 2015. He called on Iran to cooperate with IAEA with complete transparency, to subject all its nuclear installations and activities to IAEA control, and to fulfil its obligations to the Agency.

He also renewed the Kingdom of Bahrain's call to the international community to adopt a unified global strategy to curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction through an effective mechanism to disarm these weapons globally and regionally. He affirmed the inalienable right of states to benefit from the multiple peaceful fields of nuclear energy applications as long as they comply with the comprehensive safeguards of the IAEA, and the importance of achieving more benefit in the exchange of nuclear knowledge and technologies between industrialized and developing countries.

The Ambassador also stressed that outer space is a common property that should not be exploited in a way that threatens international peace and security. He pointed out the need to adhere to the relevant international legal agreements, which lay the foundations in order to prevent the weaponization of outer space and to ensure its continued use for peaceful purposes.