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Russia will facilitate creation of WMD-free zone in Middle East — diplomat

Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said that Moscow "fully understands its role in the facilitation of this process"

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Israel’s boycotting WMD-free Middle East conference is not in its interests - diplomat

THE UNITED NATIONS, November 20. /TASS/. Russia is ready to facilitate the process of creating a zone in the Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Tuesday at the UN conference.

"We want to affirm that participants in the conference may firmly count on support of Russia, which was one of the three co-authors of the 1995 resolution [on creating this zone] and fully understands its role in the facilitation of this process," Ulyanov said.

"It is clearly regrettable that Israel and the United States are not taking part in this event," he added. "Washington's approach in this context is particularly perplexing, as they do not make any efforts to fulfill their obligations as one of the co-authors of the 1995 resolution on the Middle East, as well as obligations that follow from the decisions of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference from 2010," he noted.

Ulyanov also said that "after the first session of the conference, a brief final document would be needed to send a clear signal to the international community that participants in the conference are satisfied with the first session and intend to continue joint work." "It would be useful to sketch in the final document the ideas on how the process will progress in the future," he added.

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