Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 9 / Trend News U. Sadikhova /
Turkey supports the establishment of an effectively verifiable zone, free of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery in the Middle East, Turkish deputy permanent representative to UN in Vienna, as well as IAEA, Nilvana Darama, said.
"Assurance of total absence of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in a particular geographical area would have an important impact on the security concerns of the states in that specific region," Turkish former acting ambassador to IAEA Darama told Trend News in an interview.
Turkey supports the establishment of an effectively verifiable zone, free of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery in the Middle East and encourages all efforts for developing a common regional understanding on this project, with the participation of all parties concerned, Darama said.
During the meeting of the UN Security Council in New York in September Turkish Prime-Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for cleansing the Middle East from nuclear weapons, viewing it as a major threat to regional security,.
"The Middle East must be a zone free of nuclear weapons, because it does not create more security in the region," Erdogan said.
In the last couple of years, interest in nuclear energy has dramatically increased not only in Middle East, but also beyond, Turkish diplomat Darama said.
Turkey is a member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. It is the multilateral international act of the Committee on Disarmament to the UN, which aims to prevent the expansion of countries possessing nuclear weapons and limit the possibility of an armed conflict with nuclear weapons.
Energy security is a valid domestic concern for all countries. We believe that legally binding security assurances will complement and strengthen the NPT regime," Darama said.
Turkey fully recognizes the importance and value of the existing security assurances, as provided through the protocols on the nuclear weapon free zones (NWFZ) and unilateral declarations of nuclear weapons states, Darama said.
Ankara considers the lack of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction as an important action in establishing security in the particular region.
"Turkey remains committed to all resolutions on the Middle East adopted by the UN General Assembly and calls upon all states in the region to accede to the NPT as well as the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions," Darama said.
Only Israel among the countries of the Middle East has not joined the NPT.
Several experts said that it deals with nuclear development in Dimona nuclear center in Negev desert.
Turkish Prime-Minister Erdogan urged the international community to carry out inspections at Israeli nuclear facilities, saying that it is unfair to put pressure only on the Iranian nuclear program
Erdogan said that the Western countries want to control Iran's nuclear program. The U.S.A. and Israel think that it can be aimed at developing of a nuclear bomb. They must inspect Israel's nuclear plans.
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