Arabicnews

Egypt terms use of nuclear weapons as war crime
ARABICNEWS.COM

Egypt, Politics, 1/6/2001

To use nuclear weapons is to commit a "war crime" as defined by the basic declaration of the International Criminal Court (ICC) signed so far by 139 countries, including Egypt.

This came as part of the explanatory notes which Egypt submitted while signing a document on ICC basic system in the second week of December, which was adopted by 27 nations so far.

Assistant Foreign Minister for Multilateral Relations Soliman Awad on Friday said that Egypt asserted in its ICC explanatory notes that its stance, pertaining to nuclear weapons, fell in line with its conviction that Israel's nuclear programme, which did not meet the International Atomic Energy (IAEA) guarantee system, and its refusal to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) were causing a dangerous national security imbalance in the whole Mideast region.

The latest media reports, referring to an Israeli reservations on an article in the ICC basic system, dealing with settlements and the malpractice by occupying countries against occupied nations, are not true, Awad said that the system did not allow for reservations, but only for explanatory notes which do not have the legal authority of reservations.

"Explanatory notes did not conflict with the court's basic system or rob it of its context and objectives," he noted.

"Egypt has lodged another explanatory note on retaining the right to pursue perpetrators of war crimes, or those responsible for crimes committed against humanity, before the ICC is put into effect," Awad added.