RIYADH: Saudi Arabia said yesterday Iran’s nuclear programme was an extra burden for the Middle East, but Gulf Arab allies had the right to their own atomic ambitions.
Arab foreign ministers of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) met in Saudi Arabia to discuss progress in plans agreed in December for a joint civilian atomic programme that has raised fears in certain quarters of a nuclear race with Iran.
“The nuclear crisis in the region has become an extra burden to challenges that are already facing us,” Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told the ministers.
“This urges us to deal with the new challenge with full responsibility ... and adopt diplomatic solutions in a way that would preserve the right of countries in the region for their own nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.”
Prince Saud also criticised Israel, which is widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal.
“The International Atomic Energy Agency standards and measures should apply to all countries in the region without exceptions, including Israel.”
The GCC is a political and economic alliance of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
Earlier, GCC Secretary-General Abdulrahman al-Attiyah, who visited the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last month, said he would brief the meeting about plans to co-operate with the UN nuclear watchdog.
“We agreed that they (IAEA) will provide us with experts and there will be meetings between our experts and their experts,” he said in Abu Dhabi before flying back to Saudi Arabia for the meeting.
“We will discuss the framework, terms of reference, and all the points that might be required for the feasibility study,” he told reporters, without saying when it might be completed.
“Our nuclear programme will be in accordance with international criteria and full transparency. That’s why we went to the IAEA,” he added.
The GCC’s decision to pursue a nuclear programme has raised concerns that Arab states may want to protect themselves if Iran acquires nuclear weapons. Gulf Arabs have expressed concern over Iran’s nuclear programme which the United States says could be aimed at making bombs. Tehran says its programme is peaceful.
Six world powers are now negotiating widening sanctions against Iran for pressing ahead with its programme to enrich uranium and ignoring a February 21 UN deadline to stop.
In a statement issued after the end of the GCC meeting, the six Arab states called on all regional countries to rid the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction.
They also urged the IAEA to press Israel to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to “subject its nuclear plants to inspection”.
The head of Britain’s atomic energy agency said last week that the Gulf Arab countries could lead a renaissance of nuclear power because they could afford to build plants without the opposition that often stymied their construction.
Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, said nuclear energy’s relevance was rising in a world beset by global warming and shrinking oil supplies — even among countries with the largest reserves.
“Why should you talk about nuclear energy in a place where oil and gas flows like milk and honey? The answer is security of supply and the problem of climate change,” Judge said during the recent Forbes magazine’s CEO Middle East forum in Doha. – Agencies |
