The Non-aligned Movement, representing over 100 developing countries, is urging United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United States, Britain and Russia to convene a long-delayed international conference to promote a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa made the appeal on Monday on behalf of NAM members of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty at the opening of the final preparatory conference for next year's review of the landmark 1970 agreement aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear arms.
He reiterated NAM's demand that Israel "renounce possession of nuclear weapons" and join the NPT without delay.
At the last review conference in 2010, the 189 member nations that are party to the NPT called for convening a conference on a nuclear-weapon-free Middle East in 2012 but it was never held.
