Zionist Nuclear, Chemical Arsenal Biggest Threat to Mideast Peace: Syria UN Envoy

Date: 17 October 2020 - 22:02

News ID: ۸۳۹۰۷

DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime poses the biggest threat to peace and stability in the Middle East by possessing chemical and nuclear weapons in its arsenal, Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations says.
At a meeting of the UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security on Friday, Bashar al-Ja’afari, called on the international community to force the regime into opening its nuclear sites to the UN atomic watchdog’s inspectors.
"The Israeli occupying regime’s arsenal of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons is the biggest threat to the Middle East peace and security. Such armaments have posed a great challenge to global efforts to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation over the past decades, and continue to do so,” Ja’afari said.
The Syrian envoy also said the international community has to put pressure on the occupying regime to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors into its nuclear sites.
The Zionist regime is believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal with 200 warheads.
Ja’afari said Syria calls on all UN member states to support attempts aimed at declaring the Middle East a region free from weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical and biological munitions.
"Everyone knows that Syria is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty since 1968, and signed the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1972 as well as the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 2013 respectively. Syria has also welcomed bids and initiatives seeking to establish a zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Middle East,” the Syrian diplomat noted.
"Back in 2003, Syria submitted a draft resolution on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. delegation, however, threatened at the time to cast a veto to block the resolution,” Ja’afari said.