nucs

Libya has condemned the "dangerous" threats made by an Israeli minister regarding the use of nuclear weapons against civilians in Gaza, reiterating the importance of establishing a zone free of nuclear power and weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.

Israeli Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu said in a radio interview that the option of nuclear bombing of Gaza is "one of the ways."

Commissioner Issam Ben Zeitoun delivered a speech during the participation of the Libyan mission to the United Nations in the work of the First Committee on Disarmament and International Security last Thursday.

Ben Zeitoun stressed the importance of achieving the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, calling on states possessing these weapons to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, according to a post on the Libyan mission's Facebook page.

Libya referred to the suffering of the Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation, with the martyrdom of more than 41,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children, and the injury of more than 100,000 others, in addition to the complete destruction of the infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. It also condemned the attacks on religious sanctities and called on the international community to take a firm stance to stop these ongoing violations.

Libya noted its voluntary abandonment of its nuclear program in 2003 in the hope that other countries would follow suit, while welcoming the efforts to achieve this goal through direct negotiations among the concerned parties. It called for activating the United Nations program to prevent the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, stressing the need to enhance international cooperation in the field of information security to confront cyber threats.