Mr. President,

The Middle East region, like other regions of the world, should not be threatened by nuclear weapons. Establishing a zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East will help curb the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, uphold the authority and effectiveness of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, and provide an important institutional guarantee for achieving lasting peace and security in the Middle East.

The current situation in the Middle East has heightened the attention of the international community and regional countries to the Israeli nuclear capabilities. This issue should be given greater attention and seriously discussed within the framework of the NPT and the IAEA. China calls on Israel, as the only non-state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East, to accede to the NPT as a non-nuclear-weapon state and place all its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards.