The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia stressed the importance of international efforts to achieve the goals of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction which begins with realization of the necessity for the entire international community's adoption of what is already existing of treaties and legal and ethical frameworks aiming at reaching a world free of terrorism and nuclear weapons especially in the Middle East. This came in the kingdom's speech before the Security Council session on the discussion of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction held today. The speech was delivered by Permanent Representative of the kingdom to the United Nations Ambassador Abdullah bin Yahya Almoalimi. The kingdom stressed that security and stability in any region of the world do not come through the possession of weapons of mass destruction but through cooperation and consultation among states and the pursuit of development and progress and avoidance of race to own these devastating weapons. It stated that in this regard Israel's possession of nuclear weapons is a major obstacle to achieving security and stability in the Middle East and therefore reiterates its call to make the Middle East region free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction including a call on Israel to announce its nuclear capabilities and allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to visit its nuclear sites and subject its nuclear programs to the supervision of the IAEA. Almoalimi pointed out that the entire world for more than 60 years has been greatly counting on the Charter of the United Nations and the UN Security Council as a binding instrument for the international community to ensure peace and security around the globe and gave it enough powers to carry out this crucial role and in this context comes today's session of the Council to work on activating the efforts and decisions of disarmament of the nuclear weapon and mass destruction weapons in all its forms. Almoalimi said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in this regard has made great strides in the field of the implementation of Resolution 1540 of 2004 on preventing non-state parties from making, acquiring, possessing, developing, transporting, transferring or using weapons of mass destruction through their national legislation and through its foreign policy efforts aiming at the implementation of the resolution and working on strengthen cooperation at regional and international level to apply it in order to achieve peace and security in the region. Almoalimi said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the first countries that have adopted the international resolutions related to nuclear security including UN Security Council Resolution 1540. It has also paid special attention to the question of development of infrastructure for nuclear security and rehabilitation of human resources. To achieve this, it established a specialized academic program on nuclear security sciences and organized an international workshop on resolution 1540 in Riyadh in January 2011 in an effort to introduce the resolution with the participation of delegations from several countries and donated in 2012 500,000 dollars to the Committee of Security Council Resolution 1540 to help it to carry out its functions which resulted in the establishment of three different events in cooperation between the kingdom and the United Nations University and the Committee of the resolution with the participation of several officials from states, universities and specialized institutes which contributed to the identification and awareness of the importance of the work of the 1540 Committee and its impact on international peace and security. Almoalimi noted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and at the international level has reaffirmed its commitment to preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction through its accession to major international treaties and conventions on nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction and the Geneva Protocol on toxic gases which proves its commitment to support and implement international efforts calling for the fight against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and rather their disposal in order to achieve international peace and security. He said: 'When the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia intended to develop an ambitious program to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes to achieve the goals of sustainable development and the preservation of valuable hydrocarbon resources for the coming generations, it announced it and made ensure that it complies fully with the requirements of nuclear security and to meet the maximum amount of the guiding criteria of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the stages of planning, construction and operation,' Almoalimi said 'In this regard, the Kingdom emphasizes that the nuclear security strategies must remain cooperative on the basis of mutual trust and should not be a crippling factor to develop peaceful nuclear programs of the countries according to the IAEA energy standards. He added that the Kingdom has committed to establishing a national inspection system for supervision and control of nuclear materials and exerted every effort in the development of customs regulations and border control and all law enforcement agencies to prevent the illegal trafficking of hazardous substances. In the Kingdom' speech, Ambassador Almoalimi also affirmed that out of the positions of its government to make the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, the Kingdom expressed its deep regret for the postponement of the conference to make the Middle East free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, which was scheduled to be held in Helsinki, Finland at the end of 2012 because of Israel's refusal. He further stressed the need to hold this conference at the earliest opportunity during the current year of 2014 in order to foil the attempt of a single State in the region to encroach the right of the rest of the region's countries to live in peace away from the nuclear terror.
