Don't distort NPT agenda: Iraq

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

UNITED NATIONS, MAY 2. Iraq's Ambassador to the United Nations on Monday criticised ``some'' nuclear weapons States for not abiding by the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), singling out the United States for ``distorting the agenda'' of the review conference by trying to bring in the issue of Baghdad's relationship with the Security Council.

In his statement to the ongoing NPT review conference, Dr. Saeed Hasan argued that while the non-nuclear weapons States had abided by the commitments under the treaty, some of the nuclear weapons States had not. He further said the objective of complete elimination of nuclear weapons continued to be unattainable and that there was no clear prospect of a time-table to attain it. The Ambassador lashed out at Israel, which, in his view, was armed with nuclear weapons and continued its ``arrogant behaviour'' in the Arab region. But the Iraqi representative made no mention about India's or Pakistan's 1998 nuclear tests, about which comments had been made by some of the major powers in their opening statements to the conference.

Dr. Hasan alleged that an ``unhealthy atmosphere'' had been resulted due to the policies of hegemony, reliance on the doctrine of nuclear deterrence, the unilateral use of force and the continued marginalisation of the United Nations and its mechanisms. ``It is unfair to have the Arabs stay bound for perpetuity by a treaty that provides them with no guarantee against Israeli nuclear weapons while Israel continues to develop its nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction with no control whatsoever,'' the Iraqi Ambassador remarked, adding that recent reports had revealed that Israel's nuclear arsenal included advanced and sophisticated systems of tactical and strategic weapons built with the help of the U.S.

Dr. Hasan maintained that Washington's attempts to include the issue of Iraq's relationship with the Security Council in the conference agenda was aimed at distracting the conference from Israel's nuclear weapons and from the U.S.' ``own violations of its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty...'' The Iraqi Ambassador listed several ``lapses'' on the part of the U.S., including supplying technology to Israel, the refusal to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and its intention to develop the Star Wars systems by violating obligations under the 1972 ABM Treaty.

The envoy charged that American insistence on continuation of the comprehensive regime of sanctions on Iraq was tantamount to the use of weapons of mass destruction. ``Those sanctions killed 1.5 million Iraqi civilians, a figure much higher than the total number of victims of all use of weapons of mass destruction throughout the history of mankind,'' Dr. Hasan said. He claimed that Iraq was in full compliance of its obligations under the NPT and detailed the use of depleted uranium by the U.S. and Britain against Iraq in 1991 and against Yugoslavia in 1999.

In an obvious reference to the West - the U.S. in particular- the Iraqi Ambassador observed, ``We must say to those nuclear States that try to teach the peoples of the world lessons in democracy and human rights that the first principles of democracy and human rights are the equality of all human beings.''

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Section  : International
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