Israeli President Shimon Peres
(AFP Photo/Gali Tibbon – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
SitiWanMahani - Kerajaan Israel akan
mempertimbangkan mengesahkan Konvensyen Senjata Kimia, Presiden Shimon Peres
telah diumumkan. Ia berikutan keputusan Syria melepaskan senjata kimia.
Israel, yang tidak pernah
secara terbuka mengaku mempunyai senjata kimia, masih salah satu daripada hanya
6 negara-negara di DUNIA tidak telah disahkan 1997 Konvensyen Senjata Kimia,
yang melarang penggunaan atau pengeluaran senjata kimia dan memerlukan
penandatangan untuk memusnahkan stok simpanan mereka dalam tempoh masanya.
Tetapi sekarang bahawa kerajaan
Syria sedang bersedia untuk menjadi tuan rumah kepada pakar-pakar dari
Pertubuhan bagi Larangan Senjata Kimia (OPCW), yang memeriksa bahan kimia
senjata senjata yang disimpan di beberapa kemudahan di Syria, dan menyelia
pemusnahan mereka dalam tempoh 9 bulan akan datang, Israel berkata, mereka
boleh menyertai perjanjian itu juga.
“Saya yakin kerajaan akan
mempertimbangkan dengan serius,” Peres memberitahu pemberita Isnin ibu negara Dutch
(belanda) Hague, yang merupakan rumah kepada OPCW itu - pemantau mengawasi
konvensyen itu.
Presiden Israel berkata percaya
Syria hanya menyertai konvensyen itu apabila berhadapan dengan ancaman kuasa
tentera, tetapi berjanji bahawa kerajaan akan mempertimbangkan namun panggilan
oleh Setiausaha Agung PBB Ban Ki-moon bagi semua negara untuk mendaftar untuk
perjanjian.
Syria dipercayai telah
menghabiskan dekad membina program senjata kimia, dan Presiden Bashar Assad
berkata bahawa ancaman serantau terbesar kepada keselamatan negara adalah kuasa
tentera Israel.
Walau bagaimanapun, satu
laporan baru-baru ini mencadangkan bahawa Israel juga adalah simpanan stok kimia
dan senjata biologi sebagai sebahagian daripada pertahanan terhadap serangan
mungkin dari jiran-jiran Arab.
Satu rahsia 1983 CIA anggaran
perisikan yang diperolehi oleh majalah Foreign Policy menerangkan “ejen
[senjata kimia] saraf kemudahan kemungkinan pengeluaran dan kemudahan
penyimpanan” yang terletak di Israel
Negev Desert, dan menyatakan bahawa “pengeluaran CW lain dipercayai wujud dalam
yang maju industri kimia Israel.”
Antara bahan kimia bahawa
Israel mungkin telah dimiliki pada masa laporan CIA itu “ejen non-persistent” -
yang dikenal pasti oleh FP sebagai saraf gas sarin - yang disebut. Akhir-akhir
ini, negara-negara Barat telah menyalahkan kerajaan Syria untuk menggunakan
sarin terhadap rakyatnya sendiri.
Awal bulan ini, Menteri
Perisikan Israel Yuval Steinitz berkata bahawa Israel akan bersedia untuk
membincangkan isu mengesahkan kimia senjata larangan perjanjian apabila
terdapat keamanan di Timur Tengah.
Selain daripada Israel,
negara-negara yang tidak mempunyai lagi menyertai perjanjian itu termasuk
Myanmar, Mesir, Angola, Korea Utara dan Selatan Sudan.
Israel to ‘seriously’ Consider Joining Chemical
Weapons
treaty - President Peres
The Israeli government will
consider ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention, President Shimon Peres has
announced. It follows Syria’s decision to give up its chemical arsenal.
Israel, which has never
publicly admitted to having chemical weapons, remains one of only six countries
in the world not to have ratified the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which
bans the use or production of chemical weapons and requires signatories to
destroy their stockpiles over a period of time.
But now that the Syrian
government is preparing to host experts from the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), who are to inspect the chemicals
weapons arsenals stored at several facilities in Syria, and supervise their
destruction over the next nine months, the Israelis say they may join the
treaty too.
“I am sure our government will
consider it seriously,” Peres told reporters Monday in Dutch capital The Hague,
which is home to the OPCW – the watchdog overseeing the convention.
The Israeli president added he
believes Syria only joined the convention when faced with the threat of
military force, but pledged that his government would nevertheless consider a
call by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for all countries to sign up to the
treaty.
Syria is believed to have spent
decades building up its chemical weapons program, and President Bashar Assad
says that the biggest regional threat to the country’s security is Israel’s
military power.
However, a recent report
suggested that Israel too was stockpiling chemical and biological weapons as
part of its defense against a possible attack from Arab neighbors.
A secret 1983 CIA intelligence
estimate obtained by Foreign Policy magazine describes “a probable [chemical
weapon] nerve agent production facility and a storage facility” located in
Israel’s Negev Desert, and states that “other CW production is believed to
exist within a well-developed Israeli chemical industry.”
Among the chemicals that Israel
might have possessed at the time of the CIA report the “non-persistent agent” –
identified by FP as nerve gas sarin – is mentioned. As of late, the Western
countries have been blaming the Syrian government for using sarin against its
own people.
Earlier this month, Israeli
Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Israel would be ready to discuss
the issue of ratifying the chemical weapons ban treaty when there was peace in
the Middle East.
Other than Israel, the
countries that have not yet joined the treaty include Myanmar, Egypt, Angola,
North Korea and South Sudan.
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