Egypt revives nuclear program for electricity generation: FM

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit pledged Friday that the country's current trend to revive its nuclear program is aimed at establishing electricity generation stations.

All national efforts should be coordinated to ensure the success of the national project, the official MENA news agency quoted Abul Gheit as saying.

The Egyptian top diplomat made the remarks in an interview with local weekly newspaper El-Osboa, according to MENA.

During the interview, Abul Gheit recalled President Hosni Mubarak's recent announcement on providing an alternative nuclear source of electricity generation, saying Egypt has a peaceful nuclear program since the 1950s.

The latest developments with regard to nuclear nonproliferation issues made it necessary to universalize the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), said Abul Gheit.

He, meanwhile, called on the international community to shoulder responsibility and take practical and effective steps to build the Middle East into an area clear of weapons of mass destruction.

Israel, the last non-NPT member in the Middle East, must join the NPT, he urged.

As for Iran's nuclear issue, Abul Gheit highlighted the importance of finding a peaceful solution to the current crisis.

Also on Friday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry held a meeting to debate the Arab League (AL) ministerial council's decision to develop peaceful nuclear technology and establish inter-Arab cooperation in this field.

The meeting under Hani Khalaf, Assistant Foreign Minister for Arab Affairs and Egypt's chief delegate to the AL, came after President Mubarak announced on Sept. 21 that Egypt will continue its scientific research to develop peaceful nuclear technology regardless of its high cost.

Egypt started very limited nuclear technological research in 1957, but its nuclear program was frozen in 1986 in the aftermath of the accident at former Soviet Union's Chernobyl nuclear plant in the same year.

In 1968, Egypt signed the international nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and officially supports the elimination of nuclear weapons in the region.

Source: Xinhua