The Israeli regime, as the sole non-signatory to the NPT in the Middle East, is jeopardizing regional and international peace and security and should immediately join the treaty and put all its nuclear facilities under the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN Gholam-Hossein Dehqani on Wednesday
The Iranian envoy, who was addressing the UN Disarmament and International Security Committee, added that the accession of the Israeli regime to the NPT could pave the way for the realization of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, an idea which was proposed by Iran in 1974 and continues to enjoy strong international support.
On October 1, Iran was elected as the rapporteur of the UN Committee on Disarmament and International Security (First Committee), which includes all 193 UN member states.
The Committee is one of the six main committees of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Israel is widely believed to be the only possessor of nuclear arms in the Middle East, with estimated 200-400 nuclear warheads. In its Yearbook 2012, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said that Israel possesses at least 80 “highly operational” nuclear warheads.
The Israeli regime, which rejects all regulatory international nuclear agreements, maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity over its nuclear activities and refuses to allow its nuclear facilities to come under international regulatory inspections.
AR/NN/HJL
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Greece lenders to address funding gap: Minister
Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras
Thu Oct 17, 2013 1:4AM GMT
1
Greek
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras says the country’s foreign lenders
are expected to agree in December on how to meet its 2014 funding
shortfall.
"We have discussed all the options and decisions will be taken in December," Stournaras said in the capital Athens on Wednesday following talks with Thomas Wieser, the head of the Eurogroup working group that prepares decisions at meetings of the eurozone's finance ministers.
Athens was first granted a 110-billion-euro ($145 billion) bailout by the troika of international lenders -- the European Union, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- in May 2010.
Another 130-billion-euro ($170 billion) rescue package was approved in February 2012, which had been designed to see it through 2014 but a funding gap has emerged for the second half of the year.
The European Commission puts the shortfall at 3.8 billion euros ($5.14 billion) and the IMF at 4.4 billion euros ($5.95 billion).
On Monday, the ECB rejected a bond rollover proposal, put forward by Greece in an effort to fill the gap, saying it would contravene ECB law.
"There is no way it can be covered by bond rollovers,” said Joerg Asmussen, an ECB executive board member ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Luxembourg.
Instead, Asmussen called on the Greek authorities to come up with alternative remedial methods such as a slow privatization program.
However, a different Finance Ministry official said on Wednesday that the proposal was still on the table.
A second ministry official said, “The issue of the fiscal gap will be examined extensively with the troika in the coming days and we hope to reach a solution."
Thousands of Greeks have been staging protests across the country against the harsh austerity measures imposed as a result of the two bailouts.
"There is no room for new, across-the-board fiscal measures… Since we are fulfilling our commitments we expect our partners do the same," said Simos Kedikoglou, the government's spokesman on Wednesday.
Greece has been at the epicenter of the eurozone debt crisis and is experiencing its sixth year of recession, while harsh austerity measures have left tens of thousands of people without jobs.
Many Greek workers are currently unemployed, banks are in a shaky position, and pensions and salaries have been slashed.
The European financial crisis began in early 2008. Insolvency now threatens heavily debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Spain.
The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered massive demonstrations in many European countries.
Greece lifts immunity of 3 neo-Nazi lawmakers
Christos
Pappas (C), lawmaker of the extreme far-right Golden Dawn party, is
escorted by masked police officers to the prosecutor's office from the
police headquarters in Athens on September 29, 2013 .
The
Greek parliament has voted to take away the legal immunity of a number
of its legislators from the Golden Dawn Party, which is reportedly
linked to the nation’s neo-Nazi groups.
The Wednesday vote took place amid ongoing investigations into the apparent assassination of a Greek anti-fascist musician in September, AFP reports.
The three legislators affiliated with the neo-Nazi groups have been identified as George Germenis, Efstathios Boukouras and Panagiotis Iliopoulos, and are expected to lose their immunity from prosecution so that they can face criminal charges in court.
The passage of the motion was virtually unanimously. Golden Dawn lawmakers walked out prior to the vote.
The government, meanwhile, argues that the party operates as a criminal institution. Three other top party members, including its leader, have been jailed pending trial on charges of running or participating in a criminal group.
This is while the spokesman for the racist party, Ilias Kassidiaris, as well as two other MPs, Ilias Panagiotaros and Chrysovalantis Alexopoulos will be called to respond to lesser charges, a process that also requires parliamentary approval.
While Greece was falling into a financial depression, Golden Dawn rose from a fringe group to win 18 of Parliament's 300 seats in 2012 elections; despite widespread accusations it organizes attacks on immigrants and political opponents.
MFB/PR
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