Saudi Arabia underlines importance of destroying weapons of mass destruction

Palestinian mission in UN calls for Israel’s joining of NPT

West for troops surge in Afghanistan, welcomes Karzai’s acceptance of presidential election run-off

U.S. says won’t allow North Korea to go nuclear

Outcome of Geneva enrichment talks widely welcomed

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia called for enhancing the efforts of nations in possession of chemical weapons to continue dismantling their stockpiles.

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Shaghroud, the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and permanent delegate to the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), addressing the OPCW Executive Council meeting this week, said the ban on and destruction of chemical weapons and guarantees that countries in possession of these weapons would not re-produce them would be the main objectives of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Meanwhile, Ammar Hijazi, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, said that disarmament efforts must uphold international humanitarian law principles, according to a Palestinian news agency.

All Member States had the duty to stop the transfer of arms to States that seriously violated those laws, including States that committed grave breaches identified in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, particularly, belligerent occupying Powers that neglected their legal obligations and used indiscriminate and excessive force against civilian populations. Israel’s abhorrent conduct during the war on Gaza was a clear example. Member States should pay due attention to States that armed and formed militias that resided unlawfully in an occupied land. He pointed, as an example, to the routine Israeli settlers’ violence against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. States proven to continuously violate laws of war must not be allowed to use conventional weapons, such as cluster munitions, anti-personnel mines, flachette missiles, dense inert metal explosive munitions and ammunition containing depleted uranium, as well as those weapons, such as white phosphorous, not proscribed under international law.

Nuclear and non-conventional weapons represented the most serious threat to humanity’s survival, and he regretted the Middle East had not yet become a nuclear-weapon-free zone. Noting that Israel was the only State in the region that had neither become, nor stated its intention to become, a party to the NPT, he said that Israel had repeatedly and clearly declared it was a nuclear-weapon State and boasted of international immunity from accountability or oversight.

He warned of selectivity in efforts to rid the Middle East of nuclear arms. “We maintain that turning a blind eye to States that are stockpiling and developing nuclear weapons while refusing to submit to international inspection is gravely dangerous,” he said, adding that non-proliferation efforts in the region should be comprehensive, and not selective “otherwise, the good will we agree on will be wasted and the credibility of our aims will be damaged.”

International efforts in the region should start with concerted pressure on Israel to accede to the NPT, he urged. Making the Middle East nuclear-weapon-free was an indispensable condition to stability and peace in the region for generations to come. Any attempt to pre-condition international accountability in that regard was a disingenuous pretext to escape adherence and at gaining yet more time to stockpile those weapons of mass destruction, without any oversight or accountability. It was vital to push for the implementation of the package deal on the indefinite extension of the NPT, in particular the resolution on the Middle East. “Anything else will prove devastating and could trigger a nuclear arms race in the region,” he said. The 13 practical steps must be respected to maintain the Treaty’s credibility.

Devastating and long-term effects of human rights violations, impunity, foreign occupation, underdevelopment and poverty were directly linked to disarmament efforts, he said. The Committee must address those and other issues, steeped in the reality that deadly conflicts and illicit arms trading would flourish as long as the root causes of conflicts remained unresolved.

“At a time when the world community is cooperating to overcome economic and environmental dangers, we must show equal determination to work collectively on stopping the scourges of needless and senseless wars,” he concluded.

“Millions of defenseless civilians, who have long suffered senseless violence and grinding poverty, count on us to do that. Only then do our future generations stand a chance at living a prosperous life, free of the worst nightmare humanity can face: a nuclear arms race and unchecked violations of human rights.”

US President Barack Obama thanked his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on his agreeing to stand for a run-off in elections in Afghanistan, saying it would be a step towards formation of a credible government.

"I had the opportunity to speak with President Karzai this morning and I wanted to congratulate him on accepting the certification of the recent election," Obama told White House reporters at joint media briefing with the visiting Iraqi Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki.

The White House later said that during the telephone conversation Obama underscored that this decision was in the best interests of the Afghan people.

"President Obama also called Dr Abdullah to express appreciation for his constructive efforts," the White House said. Senior US officials said it was not clear whether the run-off would change the timing of Obama's decision on request by his top commanders for deployment of 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan.

"We have seen the candidates express their willingness to abide by constitutional law and this is the way forward in order to complete this process," Obama was quoted as saying by the White House said. Obama also received an update from US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Einkenberry on developments in the country.

During the talks, the White House said, Obama thanked his top diplomat and his team for their hard and exceptional work in recent days and discussed his appreciation for Senator John Kerry's collaboration with the Ambassador.

Earlier in a statement, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the decision of Karzai and said that this is in the best interest of the people of Afghanistan.

"The leadership shown by the President (Karzai), Dr Abdullah and all of the other candidates has strengthened Afghanistan and kept faith with the best interests of the Afghan people," Clinton said. "I welcome President Karzai's announcement that he accepts the recommendations of the Electoral Complaints Commission and the Independent Election Commission's statement on the August 20 first round election results," she said.

Later, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that the second round of election is going to be more challenging than the first one, primarily because of the adverse weather conditions. "We don't minimize the challenges. We didn't minimize them for the first round in August, and it's going to be even more difficult now, I think, with more challenging weather conditions," he told reporters at his daily press briefing.

Pledging full support to the run-off, Kelly said Afghan plans are in place to enable a second round of voting.

However, a State Department spokesman denied reports that Karzai was pushed to accept the run-off.

On the other hand, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rebuffed North Korean hopes it may be accepted as a nuclear state, saying the United States will never have normal, sanctions-free ties with a nuclear-armed North Korea.

Clinton laid down a hard line as the United States weighs whether to engage in bilateral talks with North Korea, a step it hopes will bring Pyongyang back to wider, six-party talks on ending its nuclear programs.

The North, which conducted its second nuclear test in May, has said it wished to be treated as a nuclear state.

While repeating the U.S. openness to bilateral talks with North Korea, Clinton said the United States would not soften its sanctions on Pyongyang.

"Current sanctions will not be relaxed until Pyongyang takes verifiable, irreversible steps toward complete denuclearization," Clinton said in a speech hosted by the United States Institute for Peace think tank.

"Its leaders should be under no illusion that the United States will ever have normal, sanctions-free relations with a nuclear-armed North Korea," she added. "We are prepared to meet bilaterally with North Korea. But North Korea's return to the negotiating table is not enough."

The United States hopes a bilateral dialogue may bring North Korea back to six-party talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States on ending the North's nuclear programs.

Those discussions have been stalled since North Korea quit them six months ago.

The North recently telegraphed it wanted better relations with Washington, freeing two jailed U.S. journalists in August and signaling two weeks ago that it could return to the six-way talks but wanted to talk to the United States first.

It is unclear what may have triggered the recent warming. After Pyongyang conducted its second nuclear test, the U.N. Security Council imposed fresh sanctions on North Korea that are designed to restrict its arms sales, which provide a vital source of hard currency for the impoverished country.

The United States, which has said it has not decided on bilateral talks, wants some assurance North Korea will actually return to six-party talks and recommit to abandoning its nuclear programs before engaging directly.

The State Department last week said it had decided to grant a visa to Ri Gun, North Korea's No. 2 official at six-party talks, to attend meetings in New York and San Diego.

U.S. analysts said that by allowing Ri to visit, the Obama administration might be signaling a desire to explore whether direct talks between the United States and North Korea might lead to a resumption of wider denuclearization talks.

The United States wants North Korea to give up its nuclear programs, which it sees as a direct threat to U.S. allies South Korea and Japan, while North Korea has recently made clear that it wants to be accepted as a nuclear state.

In Vienna, a top Iranian negotiator praised a plan Wednesday that would ship most of his country's uranium abroad for enrichment and limit its ability to build a nuclear weapon.

There was no guarantee, however, that Tehran's leaders would accept the idea.

In seven years of back-and-forth diplomatic wrangling, Iran has appeared to accept previous proposals meant to ease fears it might be seeking weapons capability -- only to later reject those same proposals. The West says that has given the country time to build its civilian nuclear program and its capacity to generate fissile warhead material.

At the end of three days of talks, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said representatives of Iran and its three interlocutors -- the U.S., Russia and France -- had accepted his draft agreement for forwarding to their capitals.

ElBaradei said he hoped for approval from all four countries by Friday, adding: "I cross my fingers."

Iran's refusal to curb its enrichment program has led to three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions, and it was unclear whether the leaders of the Islamic Republic were ready to deal away their strategic leverage and compromise on their quest for nuclear independence.

Iran insists it has a right to uranium enrichment to create fuel for a nuclear reactor network to generate power, and it dismisses suspicions that it could use the technology to make weapons-grade material for missile payloads.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate, praised the draft, saying it was "on the right track," while emphasizing that senior Iranian officials in Tehran still had to sign off on it.