Ban Calls For Total Elimination Of Chemical Weapons Within Five Years

Tehran, April 9, IRNA - Warning that the fog of war must never again be composed of poison gas, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday appealed to the 188 States Parties to the United Nations-backed treaty outlawing chemical weapons to do all in their power to bring on board the eight nations that still have not signed on. Eight countries remain outside of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) – Angola, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, Israel, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria – and Ban has repeatedly urged them to join, a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) said here on Tuesday. “I urge all of you who are in a position to do so to show political leadership and encourage these countries to join the Convention,” he told Third Review Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague. “Nothing can justify the possession of this heinous category of weapons of mass destruction. Nothing,” he said, noting that 80 per cent of declared chemical weapons stockpiles have already been destroyed thanks to CWC. He hoped that the 100 per cent target will be reached by the next review conference in five years’ time. “We know that until the last stockpiles have been destroyed – and until the Convention is binding worldwide – the threat posed by chemical weapons will remain. Look no further than today’s headlines,” he said. He called on the parties to focus on three issues: to build on CWC’s achievements so that it remains an effective bulwark against the re-emergence and proliferation of chemical weapons, to forge a stronger partnership with the chemical industry to address safety and security issues; and to make full use of the treaty’s robust and reliable monitoring and verification mechanism. “With that expertise, your organization can play a constructive role in the process of establishing a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction,” Ban declared, referring to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the implementing body of CWC, which entered into force in 1997. “Let me take this opportunity to express my sincere hope that that important conference convene without further delay,” he added. An international conference on setting up a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, which was initially planned for December 2012 in Helsinki, Finland, was postponed last year at the request of the United States, Russia and United Kingdom – the three depositary States of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – which felt that conditions were not being met for such a conference./end