Ihsanoglu calls for international control on Israeli nuclear facilities

JEDDAH, — The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General, Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, welcomed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General’s recent invitation for Israel to consider signing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and subject its nuclear facilities to the IAEA’s safeguards system.

The Secretary-General reiterated the OIC’s firm stance in support of establishing a zone free of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, noting that the spread of nuclear weapons in the Mideast is “a major threat to international peace and security.”
 
He urged the international community to exert greater pressure on Israel to renounce possession of nuclear weapons, sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and place all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards.

Meanwhile, he called on the Pakistani people to resort to reason, in the wake of a suicide bombing that targeted a demonstration in Quetta, Baluchistan province last Friday.

Ihsanoglu said the bombing that killed and wounded dozens amid a crowd of protesters in Quetta was “a blind crime,” that showed no regard for the sanctity of the holy month or the suffering of millions of victims, sick and displaced in the country’s recent flood disaster.

The killings, Ihsanoglu explained, fall out of line with Islamic principles, which forbid killing Muslims and uphold the spirit of brotherhood and togetherness.