GENEVA, 18 June (UN Information Service) -- The Conference on Disarmament should pursue vigorously its mandate and hold intensive consultations on nuclear disarmament which should provide for the early establishment of an ad hoc committee on that issue, Iran's Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs in charge of legal and political affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told the Conference this morning.
He said the Conference was also to deliberate transparency in armaments which could help confidence-building measures. It was self-evident that the best assurance to non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons was the total elimination of those inhumane weapons. However, as an interim measure, there existed the need to negotiate an international and legally binding instrument on negative security assurances. He said there was a need for political will and commitment on the part of nuclear-weapon States to move forward on that issue.
Mr. Zarif said recent nuclear tests in South Asia had sharpened the focus on nuclear disarmament as the highest priority of the world community.
Ambassador Agus Tarmidzi of Indonesia noted that nuclear-weapon States perceived nuclear disarmament to be a bilateral matter which should be dealt with bilaterally among themselves. Indonesia and other countries belonging to the Non-Aligned Movement believed that nuclear disarmament should be dealt with in multilateral negotiations because it was the concern of the international community. He stressed that without iron-clad guarantees for negative security assurances in the form of an international convention, non-nuclear-weapon States would remain subject to the threat or use of nuclear weapons. It was time to initiate negotiations for nuclear disarmament under the auspices of the Conference on Disarmament which would lead to the conclusion of a nuclear-weapon convention.
The outgoing President of the Conference on Disarmament, Ambassador Murat Sungar of Turkey, said that a meeting he held with all delegations on nuclear disarmament had been useful in providing a better understanding of delegations' views, but it did not allow for the development of a common approach on how to deal with that item. He stressed that recent events had
clearly shown that the entire nuclear disarmament cause must be revived both in pace and scope to match the newly demonstrated urgency.
The representative of Bangladesh also addressed the plenary.
Statements
MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs in charge of legal and political affairs of Iran, said the recent nuclear tests in South Asia had sharpened the focus on nuclear disarmament as the highest priority of the world community. There was a need for a fresh look at the question of nuclear disarmament. For decades, numerous calls for nuclear disarmament had fallen on deaf ears,and there had been little significant progress. While an overwhelming majority of States insisted on multilateral negotiations on nuclear disarmament, some nuclear-weapon States spoke solely of reduction and insisted that even that issue was best left to bilateral negotiations amongst the nuclear-weapon States themselves. That could only be called total indifference to the grave concern of the international community over the risks of nuclear weapons.
He said the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was never meant to perpetuate the possession of nuclear weapons and create two categories of States. At first glance, it might seem that there was no possibility for reconciliation between the divergent positions. However, Iran believed that the self-evident reality was slowly sinking in to show that the advantages of a nuclear-free world by far outweighed whatever prestige or misplaced sense of security that was derived from the balance of terror of a nuclear arms race.
Iran urged the President of the Conference on Disarmament to pursue vigorously the mandate to hold intensive consultations on nuclear disarmament and said that should provide for the early establishment of an ad hoc committee on nuclear disarmament. The Conference was also to deliberate transparency in armaments which could help confidence-building measures. Mr. Zarif said it was self-evident that the best assurance for non-nuclear- weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons was the total elimination of those inhumane weapons. However, as an interim measures, there existed the need to negotiate an international and legally binding instrument on negative security assurances.
He said Iran attached great importance to negative security assurances. There was a need for political will and commitment on the part of nuclear-weapon States to move forward on that issue. The nuclear tests in South Asia had underscored the necessity of establishment of a zone free from nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Unsafeguarded nuclear facilities and clandestine nuclear programmes of Israel posed an imminent threat to the peace and security of the region. The international community should exert
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every pressure on Israel to immediately abandon and dismantle its nuclear-weapon programmes, accede without any precondition to the NPT and accept unconditionally the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Anything less would encourage Israel to continue enhancing its nuclear arsenal which would undoubtedly have grave consequences for regional and global peace and security.
In conclusion, he hoped that the unfortunate incidents in South Asia would generate a strong momentum for multilateral negotiations on a phased programme for nuclear disarmament so as to end the nuclear threats. Progress in that field required persuasion, perseverance and pressure.
AGUS TARMIDZI (Indonesia) said the nuclear tests conducted by two members of the Conference on Disarmament had undermined the non-proliferation regime assiduously built for nearly three decades and threatened the objectives contained in various nuclear-weapon-free-zone treaties. That constituted a serious setback for the concerted endeavours of the international community to achieve nuclear disarmament and, more ominously, raised the spectre of a nuclear arms race and confrontation in South Asia with its attendant consequences.
He said that, as long as nuclear armaments were maintained while no steady advances were made in nuclear disarmament through concrete measures, there would always be challenges to the non-proliferation regime and pressures for States to acquire nuclear-weapon capability. The recent developments in South Asia were triggered in large measure by a lack of substance progress in nuclear disarmament in recent years, the perception that nuclear-weapon States were determined to maintain their arsenals in perpetuity, resentment of hegemony and domination, the selective implementation of the NPT's provisions, as well as defiance of the international consensus on the illegality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons and consistent refusal to assure the security of non-nuclear States in an internationally binding convention.
The urgent need to put nuclear disarmament on the top of the agenda of the Conference on Disarmament could not be overemphasized, he went on. There had been no dearth of proposals for nuclear disarmament -- only lack of political will and determination and corresponding lack of sensitivity to the collective concerns and interests of the international community. He noted that nuclear-weapon States perceived nuclear disarmament to be a bilateral matter and should be dealt with bilaterally among themselves. Indonesia and other countries belonging to the Non-Aligned Movement believed that nuclear disarmament should be dealt with in multilateral negotiations because it was the concern of the international community. He also stressed that without iron-clad guarantees for negative security assurances in the form of an international convention, non-nuclear-weapon States would remain subject to the threat or use of nuclear weapons. The Conference should take a fresh look at that question. It was time to initiate negotiations for nuclear disarmament under the auspices of the Conference on Disarmament which would lead to the conclusion of a nuclear-weapon convention.
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IFTEKHAR AHMED CHOWDHURY (Bangladesh) thanked Ambassador Murat Sungar of Turkey, as his term as President of the Conference came to an end, and complimented him for his work. Events had made his mission difficult at times, but he had carried it out with distinction. He also wished to inform the Conference of a positive development in the situation in South Asia. Upon the invitation of the Prime Minister of India, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh had visited New Delhi on 16 June and had been cordially welcomed. In a similar vein and upon an invitation from the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh would visit Islamabad on 24 June. The central purpose of those visits was to foster good will among the nations of South Asia.
MURAT SUNGAR (Turkey) outgoing President of the Conference on Disarmament, said that a meeting of all delegations on nuclear disarmament had been useful in providing a better understanding of delegations' views, but it did not allow for the development of a common approach on how to deal with that item. Informal open-ended consultations showed the high priority attached by all delegations to that issue, recognition by all of the complexity of the issues involved, and the need for the Conference to develop consensus on an appropriate mechanism or mechanisms to deal with that issue in all its aspects.
He said that based on his intensive consultations, he had derived, among other things, that the importance of the early start of negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty was widely shared, although the scope of such a treaty and the political context for its negotiation still required further consideration; that the Group of 21 continued to attach the highest priority to nuclear disarmament and to the need for the immediate establishment of an ad hoc committee on the subject; and that the Conference should focus on developing consensus on proposals which enjoyed the widest support to start deliberations on nuclear disarmament.
He said the magnitude and complexity of the tasks ahead of the Conference could not be overemphasized. However, now that the positions held by delegations had been clearly identified, what was required was a display of the necessary spirit of compromise and flexibility which would allow the Conference to translate into action what was now the subject of a convergence of views, while efforts continued to enlarge the areas of consensus to cover the security concerns of all. Recent events had clearly shown that the entire nuclear disarmament cause must be revived both in pace and scope to match the newly demonstrated urgency.
In conclusion, he expressed satisfaction that the Chairman of the ad hoc committee on negative security assurances and the six special coordinators on the prevention of an arms race in outer space, anti-personnel landmines, transparency in armaments, review of its agenda, expansion of its membership, and the improved and effective functioning of the Conference had embarked on substantive and consultative work.
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