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The
Challenges that Face the Non Proliferation Treaty
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Afro Asian
peoples' Solidarity Organization in cooperation with School of Global
Affairs and Public Policy AUC hold a lecture on 26 April 2010 at the
Oriental Hall in AUC on "The Challenges that Face the Non Proliferation
Treaty ".
Mr
Nouri Abdul Razzak the Secretary - General of AAPSO made the opening
speech, and Ambassador Nabil Fahmy - the Dean of School of Global
Affairs and Public Policy at AUC was the main speaker, then Dr. Mohamed
Ibrahim Shaker the Chairman of Egyptian Council for Foreign
Affairs spoke, Dr Mohamed Abdul Salam - the Director of the Security
Regional Programme in Al Ahram Strategic and Political Studies and Dr.
Mostafa Al Faky - the Chairman of the Foreign Relations in the People's
Assembly.
This lecture
covered all the challenges that face the NPT and concentrated on the
importance of the renewal of the initiative of Evacuation of the Middle
East from the Nuclear Weapons .
The attendance
of this lecture was vast and the Hall was full of important figures who
are concerned with this issue .
Speech by:
Mr. Nouri Abdul-Razzak
Hussain, Secretary General of the
Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization (AAPSO)
His Excellency Ambassador Nabil Fahmy, the Dean of
AUC’s School of Global Affairs and Public Policy,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It
gives me pleasure, in the name of the Permanent Secretariat of the
Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization (AAPSO), to extend my deep
thanks and gratitude for your kindly acceptance of our initiative to
hold this joint meeting between the AUC’s School of Global Affairs and
Public Policy and us which is dedicated to the discussion of the global
challenges facing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
(NPT). Our meeting is held on the occasion of the Eighth NPT Review
Conference which is due to be held in New York from May 3rd to May 28th,
2010, and upon your approval to be the major speaker in that meeting.
In
this regard, I should express my sincere thanks and gratitude to the
distinguished misters who have accepted our invitation to come and
participate in that meeting, and they are all prominent figures in this
field. I extend my special thanks to HE Ambassador Muhammad Ibrahim
Shaker, the Chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA),
and the chairman of the Third NPT Review Conference held in 1985, HE
Ambassador Dr. Mustafa El-Fiqi, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee at the People’s Assembly, and the prominent national
intellectual Dr. Muhammad Abdel Salam, the Head of the Regional Security
Programme at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies
(ACPSS).
After forty years since making the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the
United Nations is preparing for convening the Eighth NPT Review
Conference. Certainly, this meeting is of great importance as this NPT
is the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation and upon
which all international efforts rely for nuclear disarmament. It may
also provide the most globally successful monitoring system on nuclear
weapons.
The NPT is a multilateral agreement that was opened for signature on the
1st of July 1968 for reducing the spread of nuclear weapons that
threaten the world peace and the future of humanity. 189 states have so
far signed the treaty, which came into force on March 5th, 1970 for a
limited duration of twenty five years extended in 1995 indefinitely.
Notably, the non-proliferation system is based upon three main pillars:
1.
The non-proliferation,
2.
The nuclear disarmament, and
3.
The peaceful use of the nuclear energy.
In
the light of working in accordance with these three pillars, there are
ongoing challenges facing the non-proliferation system and underlying
the basic principles of the Treaty. Among these challenges are:
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The spread of nuclear weapons technologies
through a state that legitimizes its nuclear capabilities by means
of imposing the policy of fait accompli as is the case with Israel.
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The withdrawal from the NPT
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The non-compliance with the NPT terms
-
Making improvements on nuclear weapons by some
states that possess these weapons
Two states have entered into the Treaty since the 2000 Review
Conference, Cuba was one of them as it acceded to the Treaty in 2002.
The international community has welcomed the accession of the two states
as it represents an important development that contributes to the
reinforcement of the non-proliferation system. And whereas Israel, India
and Pakistan chose not to accede to the Treaty, the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea declared its withdrawal from the NPT in 2002.
The September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. played a role in drawing
the whole world’s attention to the danger of other terrorist acts in the
future in which weapons of mass destruction may be used. The UN Security
Council addressed this challenge by issuing resolution No. 1540 of 2004,
which called upon all states to adopt and enforce effective laws that
prohibit any non-State actor to manufacture, acquire, possess, develop,
transport, transfer or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. It
further called upon all states to take effective measures to establish
domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of these weapons.
It
can be said that since the Review Conference of 2000, much progress has
been achieved towards finding a nuclear-free zone in Central Asia as the
five Central Asian countries declared that they managed to reach an
agreement in this respect in conformity with the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
However, the resolution pertaining to freeing the Middle East from the
weapons of mass destruction is still facing obstacles and hardships due
to the international protection provided for the Israeli nuclear
arsenal, the ambiguity of its position and the double standards that are
regarded as one of the most important challenges facing the NPT. And
despite the fact that more countries have been complying with the
Treaty, there is a prevailing feeling that the enforcement of the NPT
has, to some extent, declined compared to what was expected, especially
that there are fears regarding the risks of the proliferation and
transfer of the nuclear weapons from the states to the individuals and
terrorist organizations. Therefore, it becomes necessary to demand the
implementation of article 6 of the Treaty which states specifying
timetables for dismantling the nuclear weapons, the article which has
not yet been enforced by some states that are still developing their
nuclear arsenal. These states are also contributing to the nuclear
proliferation through providing military nuclear technologies to NPT
non-signatory states, in particular Israel. Moreover, many developments
occurred after the year 2000 resulting in several nuclear states’
violations of the NPT, a decline of the NPT implementation. Add to that
the threats made by some nuclear states to use nuclear weapons against
other states that do not possess the same weapon. This is in addition to
the production of more highly enriched plutonium and uranium and the
lack of transparency of the nuclear programmes of those states.
The nuclear agreement concluded between India and the U.S. represents
another breach of the NPT. The United States, which supposedly fights
the nuclear proliferation, has amended some of its laws that stood as a
stumbling block in the way of that agreement. Indeed, this is a clear
example of subjecting the terms of the Treaty to the geopolitical
interests.
It
is worth mentioning that the Iranian nuclear file is expected to face
heated discussions during the forthcoming Review Conference. It was
clear in the recent Washington Summit how this problem occupied a large
part of the discussions of the summit, for which President Obama had
called to prevent the occurrence of nuclear weapons in the hands of
terrorist elements. Besides, failing to reach a solution for the Iranian
nuclear issue and the necessity of delegating the issue to the IAEA will
make the issue more complicated and difficult to be resolved.
The Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization (AAPSO) has constantly
stood by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and is still backing up all
international efforts aiming at nuclear disarmament, relieving the
international tension and the transparent and honest enforcement of the
NPT terms. In fact we see positive signs in this respect for reducing
and defusing the international tension, at the top of which comes the
recent START agreement concluded during the U.S. Russian summit held in
Prague with the objective of reducing the ceiling of nuclear warheads.
This is in addition to some relief that has occurred in the Korean and
Iranian positions.
Hence, AAPSO, in cooperation with the AUC’s School of Global Affairs and
Public Policy, mobilizes all its efforts and energies for activating,
reinforcing, furthering and achieving the universality of the Treaty on
the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and reaching a nuclear-free
world by means of the full implementation of the international Treaty.
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