2004 World Conference against A & H Bombs

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2004 World Conference against A & H Bombs
Hiroshima
August 4, 2004

Speech by Dr. Mohamed Ezzel Din ABDEL-MONEIM
Assistant Foreign Minister, Egypt
Professor of International Law and Organization, Suez Canal University


Ladies and gentlemen,

I am honored to address the great people of Hiroshima on the themes: gAbolition of Nuclear Weapons Now!h and gLet There Be No More Hiroshimas and No More Nagasakish.

It is regrettable indeed that we still live in a world armed with nuclear weapons fifty-nine years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fifty-nine years with nuclear weapons much more destructive than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. An arsenal which can destroy the whole world several times.

But they will tell us that the world already survived fifty-nine years with nuclear weapons because nuclear weapons were never used since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The fact remains, however, that as long as nuclear weapons exist every city on earth is a potential Hiroshima and a potential Nagasaki.

The reason for this is that nuclear weapons are based on false assumptions which never came true.

First, the assumption of using nuclear weapons in combat, in battlefield, cannot materialize and the so called gtacticalh nuclear weapons are more counter-productive than useful. Nobody would dare to take the risk of using them. This assumption failed.

Second, the assumption of nuclear deterrence, the doctrine prevailing in Nuclear Weapon States has brought to the world the most controversial and the most destabilizing strategic doctrine ever known. They used to believe that nuclear weapons deterred the Nuclear Weapon States from attacking each other. But this assumption, which has ironically triggered the nuclear arms race, has also failed. This is because the essence of deterrence is rationality, and the dictates of reason. This has already been proven during the Cuban Missile Crisis, only thirteen years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Third, the assumption that nuclear weapons are necessary for survival. This assumption has stuck in some minds for several years, but it also failed. And the reason for its failure is that a country, however strong, however large, maybe dismembered into several countries and different entities even though it has a large and mighty nuclear arsenal. Here again, one major nuclear assumption failed, and those who failed to admit that, have not learnt a most important lesson of the Cold War.

Fourth, the assumption of nuclear weapons against nuclear blackmail, that is to say: the Nuclear Powers cannot impose anything on you as long as you are nuclear. But going nuclear alone is not sufficient to achieve this. It requires a massive change in every aspect of the balance of power and you might be caught in the middle. Let us remember the experiment of an eminent scientist where he locked two scorpions in a bottle. While fighting, each scorpion avoided to sting the other, but, in the end, each did and they both died. As long as there are nuclear weapons, the whole world is a potential Hiroshima and a potential Nagasaki.

In spite of all this, there is a big sign of hope: though nuclear weapons remained, the arsenal of assumptions upon which they are found have collapsed. Note that nuclear weapons are effectively outlawed and their use is not legitimate and, thus, they remain without any moral foundation. You, the Japanese people, like us the Egyptians, are known to believe that the moral factor is the essence of every action and, on this ground, we should relentlessly persist on our campaign until the goal of abolishing nuclear weapons is attained. Only in this way, there will be no more Hiroshimas and no more Nagasakis.

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Japan Council
against A & H Bombs
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