NEW YORK, 30 November 2021, (TON): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “the perpetrators of chemical-weapon attacks must be identified and held accountable for their actions.”

His comments came as he opened the second session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Currently, 60 percent of UN member states are covered by five nuclear weapon-free zones in Latin America and the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia.

Guterres said that expanding these zones would lead to more robust disarmament and non-proliferation norms.

The UN chief said “that is particularly the case in the Middle East, where concerns over nuclear programs persist, and where conflicts and civil wars are causing widespread civilian casualties and suffering, undermining stability and disrupting social and economic development.”

In line with a General Assembly decision, the goal of the conference is to elaborate a legally binding treaty” to establish a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, on the basis of “arrangements freely arrived at by the states of the region.

Guterres praised Kuwait for actively engaging participants during the intersessional period to learn from the other nuclear weapon-free zones and continue moving the process forward.