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UN / NPT MIDDLE EAST WRAP
STORY: UN / NPT MIDDLE EAST WRAP
TRT: 4.05
SOURCE: UNTV / IAEA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / FARSI / NATS
1. Wide shot, conference
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Maged A. Abdelaziz, Permanent Representative of the Egypt, United Nations:
“NAM State Parties to the NPT are of the view that 2010 Review Conference Plan of Action inter alia gives impetus to intensify work aimed at to beginning the negotiations for a nuclear weapons convention. Furthermore the opportunity provided with the Plan of Action on the Middle East for complete progress on the goal of establishing a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East should not be lost.”
3. Cutaway, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Manouchehr Mottaki, Foreign Minister, Iran:
“We do not need to complete for establishment of a region in Middle East free from nuclear weapons to have different seminars, long discussions. The only regime that has these nuclear weapons is the Zionist regime in the Middle East and it’s good to give the mandate the Director-General of the IAEA based on some timetable programme within some very short period to try for destruction of the weapons and warheads which are there in occupied Palestine.”
5. Cutaway, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Representative from Iraq:
“The government of Iraq believes that it is essential to make Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destructions and in particular nuclear weapons and is therefore coordinating its efforts with the Arab group and IAEA and other international relevant forum.”
7. Cutaway, delegates
8. Various shots, end of conference
23 SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY
9. Various shots, general assembly hall
10. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President, Iran:
“The framework of international law should be the one observed for talks and if the international law says that disarmament must happen, then it must happen. If it says proliferation must cease, then it must cease.”
FILE – 3 MAY 2010, NEW YORK CITY
11. Various shots, Ahmadinejad during Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the NPT
23 SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY
12. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President, Iran:
“The NPT regulations should be carried out strictly for everyone whether the United States or small island states in the Pacific Ocean. Equal, the law should be equal for all and that’s called justice. That’s what we seek and god willing it’ll happen.”
FILE – 3 MAY 2010, NEW YORK CITY
13. Various shots, Ahmadinejad during Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the NPT
23 SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY
14. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President, Iran:
“When Obama says that Iran is unable to prove its adherence to the NPT, one can assume that the United States itself is able to prove adherence or other nuclear powers or other states that possess the nuclear bomb are also able to show their adherence to the NPT.”
RECENT – IAEA - 20 SEPTEMBER 2010, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
15. Various shots, IAEA headquarters during General Conference
16. Wide shot, General Conference
24 SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Amr Moussa, Secretary-General, League of Arab States:
“When we call on Israel to join the NPT as part of the efforts to make the Middle East a nuclear free of nuclear weapons, I believe that we were right, we believe that we shall continue to be right. And defending Israel on everything, even to call on Israel to join the NPT is something very, very strange and does not go well with building confidence pertaining to the joint work in the Middle East.”
17. Various shots, Israeli President Shimon Peres at United Nations
At a disarmament meeting held on the margins of the annual high-level debate of the General Assembly (GA), the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) said that the progress on the goal of establishing a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East “should not be lost.”
Ambassador Maged A. Abdelaziz from Egypt, who represented NAM, added that the May 2010 NPT Review Conference’s Plan of Action “gives impetus to intensify work aimed at beginning the negotiations for a nuclear weapons convention.”
On the prospect of a Middle East nuclear weapons free zone, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that the “only regime that has these nuclear weapons is the Zionist regime in the Middle East.”
He asked that the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) provide a “timetable” for the “destruction of the weapons and warheads which are there in occupied Palestine.”
Iraq’s representative said that his country “believes that it is essential to make Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destructions.” He added that his Government is coordinating “its efforts with the Arab group and IAEA and other international relevant forum.”
At the NPT Review Conference in May this year, ministers and other officials warned that strong efforts to advance the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East and define the contours of a legally binding international convention to eliminate nuclear weapons were urgently needed to prevent the NPT from being undermined.
Yesterday, in an exclusive interview with UNifeed, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who attended the May Conference, said that “if the international law says that disarmament must happen, then it must happen. If it says proliferation must cease, then it must cease,” when asked about Iran's relationship with the IAEA.
When asked about whether his country has any intentions of withdrawing from the NPT, he talked about the need for the NPT regulations to be “carried out strictly for everyone whether the United States or small island states in the Pacific Ocean.”
On US President Barack Obama’s call for Iran to demonstrate peaceful intentions of its nuclear programme, Ahmadinejad said “when Obama says that Iran is unable to prove its adherence to the NPT, one can assume that the United States itself is able to prove adherence or other nuclear powers or other states that possess the nuclear bomb are also able to show their adherence to the NPT.”
Meanwhile today at the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) general conference held in Vienna, a draft resolution was adopted on "making the Middle East a nuclear free zone" with 120 votes in favour. No country voted against the draft resolution.
However, Member States of the IAEA voted against an Arab-proposed resolution demanding that Israel comply with the NPT.
At a press conference on the sidelines of the GA, League of Arab States Director General Amr Moussa said “defending Israel on everything, even to call on Israel to join the NPT is something very, very strange and does not go well with building confidence pertaining to the joint work in the Middle East.”
In the May Conference In May this year, Members States unanimously adopted of a document which, among other things, contained steps towards achieving a nuclear-free Middle East.
The final document called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the co-sponsors of a 1995 resolution proposing a Middle East free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction to convene a conference to be attended by all States in the region.
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