Saudi Arabia has renewed its call to create a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
The matter was discussed during an online Cabinet session led by King Salman on Tuesday.
In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency, Dr Majid Al Qasabi, acting Minister of Media, said the Cabinet discussed the kingdom's firm stance on WMD, condemned their use and repeated its call to create a Middle East free of the weapons.
During the 97th session of the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the kingdom showed great interest in the convention banning the use of WMD, which affirms its role in strengthening international peace and security, Dr Al Qasabi said.
The Cabinet also reviewed the efforts made by state agencies to enhance development gains and advance towards Saudi Vision 2030.
This strategic framework is based on increasing and sustaining economic growth and developing new business sectors.
The calls in the region for a WMD-free Middle East have been discussed mainly within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The NPT is an international agreement whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.
Opened for signature in 1968, the treaty entered into force in 1970. A total of 191 states have joined, including the five with nuclear weapons.
More on Yemen's civil war
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
THE BIO
BIO:
Born in RAK on December 9, 1983
Lives in Abu Dhabi with her family
She graduated from Emirates University in 2007 with a BA in architectural engineering
Her motto in life is her grandmother’s saying “That who created you will not have you get lost”
Her ambition is to spread UAE’s culture of love and acceptance through serving coffee, the country’s traditional coffee in particular.
The years Ramadan fell in May
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