A nuke-free Middle East
by
S.Madhusudhana Rao |
Sultanate’s call to the world community is timely
The Sultanate’s call to the global community to make Middle East a nuclear weapons-free zone would not have come at a better time than now. In recent months, Israel’s sabre-rattling over Iran’s nuclear programme, which Teheran affirms is for peaceful purposes only, and development and testing of various types of missiles is creating tensions in the region and between Teheran and Western powers.
Israel itself is adding fuel to the fire by rejecting every peace move Arabs and the US are making towards finding a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Disregarding the global community’s appeals to end its new settlements policy in the occupied territories, the Jewish state continues to expand its presence all over the Arab lands. On the face of it, Israeli actions look localised but they carry an inherent risk of sucking other countries into the conflict and widening the battle zone.
Ever since Israel was created through a UN mandate in 1948, the Jewish state has remained a constant source of tension for neighbours because it is belligerent and its leaders are not able to come to terms with Arab states. Israel’s hostile attitude towards its neighbours is exacerbated by that country’s arsenal of modern weapons, either self-developed or acquired from others. Though it has not declared publicly, Israel is known to have nuclear weapons and it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. Israel and its armed forces do not hesitate to unleash their enormous destructive power if a war breaks out.
The Middle East is sitting on a powder keg and if a little confrontation goes out of hand it can explode into a wider conflict with unthinkable and far-reaching consequences. That is the concern – and fear – of major world powers and the Sultanate which expressed it in its address to the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
The Sultanate believes by making the Middle East region free from nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction will help create an atmosphere conducive to peace and mutual trust. The ensuing peaceful environment will increase cooperation among regional countries and will reflect positively on the world in terms of global peace and security. The Sultanate has taken this policy stand keeping in view global developments and the disastrous effects a nuclear conflagration will have on the humanity. The Sultanate stands for peace, whether it is at regional or global level, and strives for achieving it.
As part of its efforts to keep the Middle East nuclear weapons-free, the Sultanate, time and again, has been urging the international community to work towards that goal. On its part, the Sultanate called on Israel to sign the NPT and subject its all nuclear facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s monitoring system.
The Sultanate, at the same time, supports the legitimate rights of all countries pursuing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes as per IAEA norms. It welcomed Iran’s initiatives to defuse tensions by cooperating with the Security Council members plus Germany and the UN.
The Sultanate’s UN statement is in consonance with its avowed policy on nuclear issues and reflects the recent moves by the US and the UK which have called for global nuclear disarmament. Last month, the Security Council had unanimously resolved to rid the world of nuclear weapons and to halt their proliferation. It is easier said than done. Does any country voluntarily disable all its nuclear weapons and close its options?
The fear of being the first strike target keeps prodding nations with nuclear arms-producing capability into acquiring the required atomic muscle that can be flexed during the arms reduction talks or signing of arms cut treaties such as NPT. A classic case is that of countries who have not signed the NPT. They want to be recognized as nuclear powers before inking the treaty.
The UN efforts as well as the US and its allies’ attempts to make the non-NPT states to initial the proliferation and nuclear disarmament treaties are bogged down either in technicalities or political bickering. Unless all the UN members endorse the treaty it will not come into effect. As the Sultanate’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Mohammed Bin Aqail Ba’Omar, rightly pointed out in his speech that there is a flaw in the proliferation pact, it needs to be corrected. Since many countries see the NPT as discriminatory in nature – nuclear haves versus nuclear have-nots — the stalemate over nuclear agreements has been continuing for decades. The failure of big powers to remove the defects in arms accords has encouraged some countries to try to own the deadly weapons in the name of national security and independence. Have these flaws been removed in the last 30 years, the world would have limited the uncontrolled growth of nuclear arms and their delivery systems.
Even now, it’s not too late to restrict their development provided all the countries show political wisdom and the will to eliminate the weapons of mass destruction from the face of our planet. The Sultanate once again called on the NPT non-signatories to show political will and sign the treaty so that the world could move ahead to make the planet a safe place to live in.
A review conference on NPT scheduled for May next year in New York, hopefully, will look into the anomalies in the treaty and rectify them to make the pact acceptable to all members. Obama’s promise to make the world nuclear free gives us a new hope that the forthcoming meet would make tangible progress in this regard and take concrete decisions, including those pertaining to the Middle East. That’s the Sultanate’s hope with which every peace-loving country will agree.
Oman Tribune |
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