We will insist on regional safety and security, minister says

Abu Dhabi: The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran poses the most immediate threat to the stability of the region, it emerged from a Nuclear Energy Conference that opened in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, reiterated the UAE was committed to a peaceful nuclear programme.

Model for transparency

"We will insist on safety and security because after all we cannot afford anything else but that," he added.

Dr Gargash told the Nuclear Energy Conference yesterday the UAE's own nuclear energy programme would be a "model for openness and transparency."

The Government published in April a policy document evaluating the potential development of a peaceful nuclear energy programme. It stressed the UAE's commitment to "operational transparency" and pursuit of "highest standards of non-proliferation."

David Miliband, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, delivered an address stressing the importance of pressuring Iran to come clean with its nuclear ambitions.

"A Middle East free of nuclear weapons is by definition critical to our vision. Iran however is going down a different path. It continues to enrich uranium in breach of five Security Council resolutions," Miliband said.

'Lead by example'

Instead of focusing on disarming Iran's nuclear programme, those with nuclear weapons should set the example of disarmament, Hans Blix, former United Nations weapons inspector said at the nuclear energy conference yesterday.

"Perhaps preventing the threat of nuclear weapons in the first place would be less difficult if those that have these weapons take the lead in marching out of the nuclear weapons era and seeking disarmament. Preaching to others to stay away from nuclear weapons that you have yourself is a little like smoking a cigarette and teaching your children to stay away from smoking," Blix said.

Blix called on the US to take the initiative of disarmament and praised President-elect Barak Obama for indicating his will to do so.

"Any state embarking on nuclear power should declare, as Abu Dhabi has done, that it will not build facilities for the enrichment of uranium," he said.

No Iranian delegation is participating in the forum despite being invited.