President Thabo Mbeki renewed his call on Friday for the worldwide disarmament of nuclear weapons, saying the current slanted situation should not be allowed to continue.
Writing in the African National Congress’s online publication, ANC Today, Mbeki referred to a recent agreement reached between Iran, France, Germany, Britain and the European Union ”on various matters related to the pursuit of the goal of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons”.
”Our movement [the ANC] and government welcome this agreement, and believe that it provides the correct basis for the final resolution of the matter that has been at issue, focused on Iran,” he said.
In terms of the agreement, the parties reaffirmed their commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The Western countries and the EU recognised the rights of Iran arising from its membership of the NPT, ”exercised in conformity with its obligations under the treaty, without discrimination”.
Iran reaffirmed it did not and will not seek to acquire nuclear weapons. It committed itself to full cooperation and transparency with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Further negotiations will take place in December ”with a view to reaching a mutually acceptable agreement on long-term arrangements”.
”The agreement will provide objective guarantees that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes. It will equally provide firm guarantees on nuclear, technological and economic cooperation and firm commitments on security issues.”
These negotiations should respect the critically important principle and practice of multilateralism, in this case represented by the IAEA, Mbeki said.
Cause of Middle East conflict must go
It is also vital that the fundamental cause of the conflict in the Middle East be removed — the denial of the Palestinians’ right to an independent state, as well as the final settlement of the conflicts between Israel and other Arab countries.
”As part of this process, Israel must also be guaranteed its existence and safety, within internationally recognised and secure borders. With the removal of these sources of conflict, there would be no need for any country in the region to arm itself with WMDs [weapons of mass destruction].”
Mbeki said South Africa has been very concerned about the dispute relating to Iran, believing it should be solved without confrontation.
”Apart from anything else, we were and are convinced that such a confrontation would further undermine global peace and the possibility of reducing global tension, against the interests of all countries and peoples,” he said.
Some might think these matters should be of distant concern to South Africa, but apart from anything else, the government serves on the board of the IAEA.
”This body has treaty obligations to address the Iran affair, and has been doing so. Necessarily, therefore, as members of the board with other countries, we have been involved in discussions relating to this matter. But the issue goes beyond this.”
For many decades, from the 1950s, the ANC has been an active opponent of nuclear and other WMDs.
From the early post-World War II years, the ANC became part of the global peace movement that demanded complete nuclear disarmament, peaceful co-existence among nations and the resolution of conflicts through negotiations.
The five-yearly NPT review conference is scheduled for next year, and important as the issue of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons is, it is necessary for the world community to focus once again on the challenge of nuclear disarmament.
”The situation should not be allowed to continue that the nuclear weapons states oblige everybody merely to focus on the issue of non-proliferation, while completely ignoring the demand of the overwhelming majority of humanity for the complete abolition of WMDs, an objective which our country has already achieved,” Mbeki said. — Sapa