International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference (Unofficial electronic version)	GC(42)/INF/12 21 September 1998 GENERAL Distr. Original: ENGLISH
Forty-second regular session

At the request of the Resident Representative of Morocco, speaking in the Board of Governors on behalf of Arab States members of the Agency, the attached two communications, dated 15 July 1998 and 28 July 1998 respectively, addressed to the Chairman of the Board of Governors by the Resident Representative of Kuwait, writing on behalf of Arab States members of the Agency, are herewith circulated as a document of the General Conference. The communication of 28 July 1998 was previously circulated to Member States under reference 1998/NOTE 52.

Vienna, 15 July 1998

Excellency,

I have the pleasure to inform you that the Permanent Missions of the Arab countries members of the International Atomic Energy Agency and signed in the annex to this letter wish to express their deep appreciation to the Permanent Mission of Japan for the effort which it has exerted in preparing a proposal for the amendment of Article VI of the Agency's Statute. They consider this draft text to be a good basis for negotiations and further work and they expres their preparedness to support it, after taking care of the following principles:

Firstly: Increase the seats of the Board of Governors by 7 instead of 6.

Secondly: Abide by the right of each area to decide on who may join it, while granting the right of each State to join a certain area.

Thirdly: Adopt a list of members for each area separately.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurance of my highest consideration.

	Faisal Al-Ghais
	Dean of the Arab Ambassadors
	Ambassador

To
His Excellency
Mr. Yuji Ikeda
Permanent Representative
of Japan to the International Organizations
Vienna

Vienna, 28 July 1998

Subject: Position of the Arab countries on the amendment of article VI

Excellency,

Further to my letter to you on the 15th of this current month expounding, upon your request, the views of the Arab permanent missions in Vienna on the Japanese proposal, and in view of the imminence of the 42nd General Conference of the IAEA, and also in view of the importance which many governments, including the Arab governments, attach to the question of the amendment of article VI of the IAEA's Statute, the Arab permanent missions here believe that it is of paramount importance that their position in this respect is made clear and understood correctly.

The Arab countries have a very positive and forthcoming position in favour of reaching a speedy resolution of the long-pending question of the amendment of article VI. They are also of the opinion that the occasion of the upcoming GC is too valuable to be missed for taking an appropriate decision on this matter.

We are not ony prepared, but also desire, to reach a reasonable agreement on each of the three components of the issue separately: expansion of the Board, formation of areas and criteria for Board membership. We are prepared to accept any solution, to be put in effect as soon as possible, which takes care of one major and legitimate concern of the Arab Group: we cannot accept the inclusion of Israel in the MESA area, until a just, comprehensive and permanent peace in the Middle East is reached, based on relevant UN resolutions. At that time, the Arab countries will naturally be prepared to reconsider the question of Israel's application to the membership of MESA. But we staunchly believe that it is unjust to hold the whole question of the amendment of article VI hostage to this one particular point. Rather, the GC ought to be able to approve a solution for the broader question of the amendment of article VI without any further delay and independently thereof.

Therefore, I once again wish to affirm, in the name of all Arab Resident Representatives to the IAEA, that we are flexible and prepared to negotiate and finalize any proposal which respects our aforementioned fundamental concern and I kindly request you to circulate this letter to all IAEA member states for their information.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

	Faisal Al-Ghais
	Resident Representative of the State of Kuwait
	Dean of Arab Ambassadors

To
His Excellency
Yuji Ikeda
Resident Representative of Japan
Chairman of the Board of Governors
Vienna

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