December 30, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 6, 1424

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 29: Syria pushed on Monday for a ban on nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in the Middle East, using its final days on the U.N. Security Council to shine a spotlight on Israel’s suspected nuclear arms.

Syrian Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad, whose two-year term on the 15-nation Security Council expires at midnight on Wednesday, asked the UN body to take up a resolution drafted by Damascus in April, intended to rid the Middle East region of all unconventional arms.

But US and British diplomats, whose governments have veto power in the council, expressed opposition to the draft text, saying that while its goal was admirable, the measure would achieve little on the ground.

“Our position hasn’t changed since April,” Deputy US Ambassador James Cunningham told reporters. The Syrian draft, he said, was “wrong in substance, wrong in timing”.

The draft calls for “freeing the Middle East region of all weapons of mass destruction” and asks Secretary-General Kofi Annan to verify whether the measure, once passed, is implemented.

“The issue of weapons of mass destruction is very important,” Mr Mekdad told reporters as he entered the council chamber. “This is a strategic policy on the part of Syria to call for a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction.”

It was too soon to say whether Syria would seek a quick vote on the draft, Mr Mekdad added.

Syria asked for Monday’s meeting after the council last week issued a statement welcoming Libya’s announcement that it was voluntarily abandoning its programmes for developing weapons of mass destruction.

But Arab envoys said the draft was clearly aimed at embarrassing Israel, widely believed to be the only country in the Middle East to have nuclear weapons, though it has never officially acknowledged possessing them.

Israeli Defence Ministry adviser Uzi Rubin said he did not expect fresh pleas for disarmament to have any impact on Israeli policy.

Despite Libya’s announcement, “we are still faced with massively asymmetrical hostility — five million Israeli Jews against some 500 million Muslim Arabs — and for that we must always be prepared”, Mr Rubin said.

“Washington will not be quick to pressure Israel in this matter. The Americans wants Middle East stability, and they know that a secure Israel is less likely to precipitate instability by taking offensive action. We do not proliferate or saber rattle when it comes to our presumed non-conventional capability, so we have long enjoyed tacit US backing,” Mr Rubin said.—Reuters