Syria calls on the OPCW to investigate “Israel’s” use of white phosphorus in its attacks in Gaza and Lebanon

New York, (ST) – Syria condemned the Israeli occupation forces’ use of internationally banned white phosphorus in their repeated attacks in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. It called on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate Israel’s use of these weapons.

The Acting Chargé d’Affaires of Syria’s Permanent Delegation to the United Nations, Dr. Al-Hakam Dandi confirmed in a statement before the Fourth Session of the Conference on Establishing a Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East that Syria renews its call on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assume its responsibilities and take all measures to uncover Israel’s secret military nuclear program.

“This program constitutes a permanent threat to international peace and security, and should be subject to the Agency’s comprehensive safeguards and oversight systems for nuclear facilities and programs”, he added.

Dandi said: Our region has suffered for many decades from a state of instability as a result of the continued Israeli occupation of Arab lands and the occupation authorities’ continued violations of international law and international humanitarian law and their commission of various crimes. “The most recent of these crimes are war crimes against humanity that have been continuing for about 40 days against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip”, he added.

Dandi also said: Israel’s possession of a  massive arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, with the support of its allies in the United States and other Western countries has increased the serious threat to regional and international peace and security. He pointed out that a minister in the occupation government threatened to drop an atomic bomb on the fifth of this month on the people of Gaza constitutes new evidence that this entity possesses nuclear weapons.

Dandi continued: Syria renews its call on the IAEA to assume its responsibilities and take all measures to uncover the Israeli nuclear program and subject it to the comprehensive safeguards system and oversight systems for the agency’s nuclear facilities and programs.

Dandi stressed that the umbrella of protection provided by some Western countries, most notably the United States, contributed to Israel being unique in the Middle East region in possessing and developing weapons of mass destruction and refusing to subject its nuclear facilities to international control.

Dandi stressed that what the region is witnessing today requires the support of the international community for the ongoing work to establish a zone in the Middle East free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction.

Dandi pointed out that Syria was one of the first countries to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and signed a comprehensive safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

 “Syria also signed the Biological Weapons Convention, joined the Chemical Weapons Convention and fulfilled its relevant obligations, which confirms its keenness to continue moving forward with measures to make the Middle East a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction”, he added.

Dundee pointed out that Syria considers the establishment of a zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East to be an important disarmament measure enhancing the non-proliferation regime, and a serious contribution to the maintenance of regional and international peace and security.

Dandi said: The non-proliferation system has achieved success around the world through the establishment of five nuclear-weapon-free zones in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific, but the countries of our region in the Middle East are still three decades have demanded and efforts have been made to establish this zone, in a way that achieves the universality of the non-proliferation system in the Middle East region.

“ As bad luck would have it the sincere and practical efforts always collide with the protection wall that the United States and some Western countries provide for Israel, which prompts it to continue its stubborn position of refusing to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-possessing party and subjecting its nuclear facilities to the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency”.

The Acting Chargé d’Affaires of the Permanent Delegation of Syria to the United Nations concluded his statement by saying: My country expresses its readiness to work seriously and openly with all delegations of countries participating in this conference, and looks forward to reaching a legally binding treaty to establish the free zone in the Middle East that guarantees security for the peoples of our region and the world.

Raghda Sawas