The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expressed regret over the postponement of the international conference on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of all other weapons of mass destruction, which was scheduled to be held in Helsinki in December. This came in the Kingdom's speech at the Seventeenth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention held yesterday in The Hague. The speech was delivered by Saudi Ambassador to Netherlands Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Shaghroud, who is also Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia attaches great importance to the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention which comprehensively saves humanity from chemical weapons and enhances international peace and security, the Ambassador said. He reaffirmed the Kingdom's adherence to the Convention as well as its keenness on implementing the Convention at national and international levels. The Kingdom has paid an utmost care to efforts exerted to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction at regional level, pointing out that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has called in different occasions upon the international community to provide support for this objective, the Ambassador said.
