Iraq, President of the Arab Group at the United Nations for the month of October 2022, presents the group’s speech during the meeting of the First Committee on Disarmament and International Security.

The statement delivered by the Permanent Representative, Ambassador Mohamed Hussein Bahr Al-Uloom, affirmed the principled Arab positions on issues related to disarmament and international security.

Emphasis on the UN multilateral frameworks as the only sustainable way to address the issues of disarmament and international security.

Expressing concern about the failure to achieve tangible progress in the field of nuclear disarmament, and disappointment with the failure of the Ninth Review Conference of 2015 and the tenth of 2020 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, respectively, and a call for concerted efforts and work for the success of the upcoming Eleventh Conference.

The statement welcomed the international efforts and the outcomes reached by the participating parties in the first and second sessions of the Conference on Establishing a Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East

The statement stressed the critical importance of activating the United Nations Program of Action to Prevent the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons, especially with regard to combating the dangerous phenomenon of increasing flows of those weapons to terrorists and illegal armed groups.

Welcoming the adoption by consensus of the outcome document of the Eighth Meeting of the United Nations Program of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons