The Kingdom has emphasized its full commitment to the principles of disarmament set by the international community. Addressing a session of the United Nations Disarmament Commission on Tuesday, the Kingdom's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Khaled Bin Abdulrazzaq Al-Nafisi, said that the Kingdom has joined a number of major conventions and treaties in the field of disarmament and it was one of the first signatories to the Convention of Prohibition of Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons, the Convention of Prohibition of Use of Biological Weapons, the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with International Atomic Energy Agency and the Protocol of Small Quantities. He pointed out that turning a blind eye for decades to the Israeli nuclear program, which continues to produce weapons of mass destruction, has resulted in encouraging some countries to develop their nuclear capabilities and use the pretext of double-standards to justify their non-compliance with the resolutions of international legitimacy in this area. Ambassador Al-Nafisi called for declaring the Middle East including the Arab Gulf region free of all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, without any exceptions. “While the Kingdom supports the rights of all states to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, including the right of access to peaceful nuclear knowledge and technology, it calls upon all parties to adhere to the track of negotiations and peaceful solutions,” he said. Ambassador Al-Nafisi said that the Kingdom calls upon all parties to work out a peaceful solution for the Iranian nuclear issue and stresses the importance of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in this area, especially as Iran always maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
