Before concluding the Kingdom's address, Minister Khalid Al-Falih stressed the Kingdom's strategic, unwavering position regarding the peaceful use of nuclear energy, which is based on the principle of maintaining balance between a state’s obligations towards non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and achieving nuclear security, on one hand, and its right to benefit from the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy and its indigenous natural resources on the other. He also stressed the importance of the countries' compliance with the non-proliferation treaty, which calls for nuclear disarmament and stresses the commitment of nuclear power states to share their peaceful technologies with abiding member states. Eng. Al-Falih reiterated the Kingdom's support for positive initiatives that call for the creation of nuclear weapons-free geographical zones, emphasizing the Kingdom's call for cooperation with the international community to make the Middle East Region, in its entirety, a nuclear weapons-free zone. He voiced the Kingdom’s call to the international community to take a more stringent and transparent stance against all threats to regional and international peace and security, particularly Iran, given its alarming efforts to build its nuclear capabilities, in tandem with its increasing acts of sabotage and aggression against other states in the region, and its continued and substantial support for terrorist organizations, evidenced by its provision of strategic weapons which are considered to be a component of military nuclear capabilities. He stated that the Kingdom calls for the highest levels of transparency regarding the safety of nuclear power plants. In this respect, he specifically noted that the safety standards of the Iranian Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant are a source of great concern in the region, given its location, which is seismically active and closer to some cities in the Arabian Gulf area than to the Iranian capital itself. He said that Agency and its technically-advanced member states are urgently required to assess the current risks associated with the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and ensure its safety. Concluding the Kingdom's address, Minister Al-Falih reiterated the Kingdom's commitment to all treaties and conventions governing the use of nuclear energy and exchange of its technology as well as the Kingdom’s determination to continue to provide material and moral support to the Agency, towards harnessing nuclear energy for the benefit of humanity and prevention of hostile and unsafe uses thereof. --SPA 20:23 LOCAL TIME 17:23 GMT 0037 www.spa.gov.sa/w750418