THE HAGUE: Israeli President Shimon Peres has said that his government will seriously consider ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention.
“I am sure our government will consider it seriously,” Peres said while talking to reporters in The Hague, the Dutch city on Monday.
Peres said he believes Syria, which recently announced to give up its chemical arsenal, only joined the convention when faced with the threat of military force. But he pledged that his government would nevertheless consider a call by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for all countries to sign up to the treaty.
It is pertinent to mention that Israel, which has never publicly admitted to having chemical weapons, remains one of only six countries in the world not to have ratified the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. The other countries which have not yet joined the convention include Myanmar, Egypt, Angola, North Korea and South Sudan.
Earlier this month, Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Israel would be ready to discuss the issue of ratifying the chemical weapons ban treaty when there was peace in the Middle East.
